God as God Leads Us to Live with Integrity and Prayerfulness

A blur of a fortnight:

the entire backrow walking out on World-In-Theatre's Macbeth with someone muttering,"Perhaps before experimenting with process-oriented approaches one should start with enunciation? Projection? Blocking? Iambic pentameter?" as we headed to drown sorrows in roti prata and maggi mee goreng next door, before returning to collect sweaty actors for supper, over which too much information was proffered on the follicular-distribution in one-half of a husband-husband couple,

meltingly good skewers of pork belly and watermelon, equally good Kurobuta pork chop, and tasty whole roasted pink snapper at Wine Garage, while being encouraged by the perseverence of saints in very frustrating and uncertain circumstances,

ending the virgin foray in a street soccer cage with a loose bigtoe-nail and a U CRAZY WHAT?! Botak Jones burger. Behold the pound of beef in its manly chesthair-inducing patty glory!

a birthday dinner with the lush lambs at Hue Restobar, Amara Hotel, where things here today and gone tomorrow were the subject of loud cheers and applause from the entire restaurant but the bland simulacra of Vietnamese food was far less well-received,

ending another birthday celebration with a midnight 五月天 (wuyuetian, May Day) medley at a karaoke joint complete with ecstatic use of tambourines,

saying goodbye at the last ARPC service at the Kuo Chuan Secondary School building in Bishan and hullo to the newARPC building back at 25 Adam Road.

The remaining time not spent eating was for listening to Mike Raiter speak on living with integrity on Wednesday and Thursday evening, prayer on Saturday morning and Romans 9 on Sunday morning. There is something about this sort of immersion in the word of God that causes dim eyes to make out, a little clearer than usual, for a little while, a little more of the flesh to the outline of the person of God.

Living the Christian life is not a matter of following rules, being "good" or having a strict morality; neither is it primarily about squabbling over the teachings of gurus - you follow John Calvin of the TULIP, I follow the free-form theology of Dance Praise 2 with extension packs. It is what being Christian is in the first place: having a relationship with God.

Who is this Father whom we are sons of and have a relationship with? It is interesting how fans hang on every act, every change in hair style, and every word of pseudo-wisdom that falls from the lips of their idols but we Christians who claim to worship God are far more concerned about what God can do for us than about knowing anything about him. Like meetings of obsessive fans and rabid stalkers, the focus of our sermons and Bible studies should be on God and his manifold and mightily admirable characteristics. No one who asks "How will knowing Master Chou 周大侠 help me get rich?" will last very long in a real Jay Chou 周杰倫 fan forum.

So we know that God the Father is the creator of the universe, it sustainer and its ultimate judge. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good. But our minds are so befuddled by sin that we are hard put to make good use of this knowledge.

God as Judge
If God (or rather, his delegated authority Jesus) is all-knowing and the ultimate judge, then we live not to be judged by others; neither by our proud/disappointed parents, nor admiring/sneering peers, nor to make a mark in human history that generations might remember us. We live for an audience of one, with judgement day integrity.

Matthew 6:1 - 18 warns us not to practice our righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then we will have no reward from our Father who is in heaven. There should be a oneness and unity within ourselves so that we are the same person at work, at church and at home. Our profession and expression must be the same. Why do we aspire to preach or lead the singing or a bible study or to go out to missions? It ought not be to be seen by others. If it is, then we will get what we deserve - a good reputation and the esteem of people...for now...and judgement of God on the Last Day.

God as Sustainer and Creator, God as God
Again, if God is our all-powerful and all-good sustainer, then we are dependent on God and not God on us. He does not need our time or money (although a church might need them to do its work for his glory) but we need him for our very life breath. Because we are dependent on God, we ask him for things: this is prayer.

If it is God we are asking for things, then praying for the purpose of impressing other people is absurd and bile-inducing. (Matthew 6:5 – 6)

And if it is an all-good God whom we are asking, then we do not have to spam him with empty phrases, manipulative 24 hour prayer marathons that go on and on all day long. As if God were deaf or unwilling to help. (Matthew 6:7 – 8)

And if this God is the ultimate of ultimates who should be our first love and object of worship, then we should feel strongly for his reputation and his name. We get angry when a righteous man is maligned, how much more indignant should we be when a good God is deprived of his rightful glory by people bowing down and glorifying idols made with their own 2 hands? In this way, the salvation of people is secondary to the glory of God. So we ought to pray first and foremost that God’s name be hallowed. (Matthew 6:9 – 10)

If this God is our creator, then he does not exist for us, a heavenly vending machine, but us for him to do his work and to give him glory. And if he is also sustainer and preserver, then we ask him for our daily bread: food and water and air to sustain our life, and also whatever we need to do his will and make his name known in this world. We ask for just enough to do his work, for he will not grant us perfect skill or perfect health because we can still do our jobs in our fallen incompetence as jars of clay, and through our cancers and migraines and amputations. (Matthew 6:11)

And if this God is all-powerful, then nothing in this world happens without his permission. Remember how Satan in the Book of Job had accused Job of loving God not for whom God was but for what God had given Job and asked permission to test Job to prove that once all these goodies were taken away, Job would throw a tantrum and curse God (Job 1:6 – 12). Remember also how Jesus had told Simon Peter that Satan had sought permission to sift him like wheat – oh sure it was cool to follow the all-curing, all-pontificating Jesus while he was free to roam and people adored him. But wait till Jesus was captured by the authorities and strung out to dry on a cross and see which rock the trusty disciples would be found cowering under. (Luke 22:31 - 34 for prediction of chicken-ness at rooster crow) We pray that in his mercy, God will not put us through these trials, but if it must be done, then we ask that he deliver us from the Accuser.

The things in the Lord's Prayer are hardly prayed for, possibly because of our terribly and unconscionably erroneous idea of the person of God in the first place.

Wine Garage
30 Merchant Road, #01-07
Riverside Point Singapore 058282
Tel: 6533 3188

Basil Alcove and the Pre-destination-based Comfort of Romans 8:17 - 39

Meant to start on Vaughan Roberts' God's Big Picture, an overview of the entire Bible, after lunch with the group at Basil Alcove. But they'd wanted to discuss Romans 8. I could not say no.

So we crossed Middle Road to The Coffee Connoisseur where we ran through Romans 8:1-17 (people pausing once every few minutes to, alternately, explore various garden paths and critique the canvases Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts students were dragging past for an exhibition). Afterwards, to my great surprise and encouragement, they'd wanted more. God's word is addictive stuff indeed.

Pity we didn't have time for Romans 8:17 - 39, a marvellous bit of assurance against the enemy without, suffering and death, that might shake our confidence in our salvation.

Christians, especially the older believer, may find themselves shaken by the apparent unprofitability of their work in Christ. When faced with suffering, in the words of John Calvin, "sorrow takes possession of our minds and takes away all consolation and confidence". We seem such failures: our friends and family may have abandoned us; our ministries may not seem to have borne any fruit, and we ourselves are bogged down by our continuing ability to sin.

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? (Romans 8:33) Who is to condemn? (Romans 8:34) Why, staring down into the depths of our own depravity and sin with our regenerated minds, we are quite willing to bring such a charge against ourselves and condemn ourselves.

In this present time, the world finds that there is nothing about us that show that we are God's children. The quotation from Psalm 44 in Romans 8:36 is particularly illuminating:

For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

It is the bewilderment of a godly, God-fearing people at their present suffering. The believer indwelt by the Spirit does not live the victorious Christian life; he groans (Romans 8:23). We may have the firstfruits of the Spirit (Romans 8:23b) but we still await the full harvest - our adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies. There is no promise of rosy cheeks and supple healthy bodies now, for our aging and ultimately dying are our punishment for sin (see Genesis 3).

And the groaning doesn't just come from the humans in their painful mortality, but also from all of creation which was subject to futility and corruption (Romans 8:20). Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre et al were not wrong to observe the existential absurdity of the world.

And to add to the cacophony of groans from humans and the rest of creation, even the Spirit groans as he intercedes for us (Romans 8:26). Perhaps he is expressing his deep sorrow at the circumstances in which he finds himself! For so perverted and corrupted are we that we do not even know how or what to ask God to help us in (Romans 8:26a)!

But thanks be to God, through all these things, there are gleams of glory, glory that is to be revealed to us in the future (Romans 8:18). And when we become in mind and heart truly sons of God (Romans 8:19), then the rest of creation will be redeemed together with us (Romans 8:21). So the world will never be saved by the reduction of hothouse gases, climate change control or the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (aka the Doomsday Vault). Whatever it is going through now is merely the birthpangs and the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22), the necessary suffering, before ultimate fulfilment in the future.

Because this glory is future, in this life, we live by a solidly-based hope and not by sight, which, really, is rather faulty in any case and does not see what is really happening. For in this hope we were saved. Hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:24-25)

And meanwhile, what does the Spirit pray for? What is the Spirit interested in? Not that we know him more or grow in his gifts or that we be preachers of the Spirit. Rather, it is that we be conformed to the image of God's son, that we be like Christ (Romans 8:29).

Romans 8:28 - "we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" has been misused in far too many a kitchen calendar and inspirational poster. It often abused, crassly and insensitively, polluted salt in the wounds of suffering Christians. What God does not promise is greenhouse holiness - a nice little patch in the conservatory protected from bitter frost and sweltering heat tended to by competent loving gardeners. Monastaries and the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola will not work. What God does promise is that he will work through all the failure and hurt and weakness of Romans 8 to conform us to the likeness of his son, to make us holy.

Is this promise effective enough? Why, of course! If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31) Who shall bring any charge against the people God has elected? It is God who justifies (Romans 8:33). And who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us (Romans 8:34). Satan the Accuser doesn't have a chance in, erm, hell.

And how can we be sure God will do as he promises? Well if he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

God may be trustworthy, but we know ourselves too well to be confident that we will be able to cling on till the end. And so the doctrine of pre-destination and election is given not so that humans can rile against the perceived injustice of God nor so they can shrug hopelessly and say "Why should I bother to believe if I am not choosen and elected?"; it is given to believers for their comfort when their confidence in their own salvation is deeply shaken by circumstances and sin. For those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (Romans 8:30).

And who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (Romans 8:35)

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37 - 39)

Basil Alcove
190 Middle Road, #01-07, Fortune Centre
Tel: 63361318

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Working through current series on Romans:
First Thai, Jay Chou's Birthday Concert and Romans 1
Feasting and Larval Thoughts on Faith and Romans 4
Privé, Cilantro and the Marvellous Comfort of Romans 8:1 - 16
Basil Alcove and the Pre-destination-based Comfort of Romans 8:17 - 39

Privé, Cilantro and the Marvellous Comfort of Romans 8:1 - 16

After months of working through structural permutations and cultural differences (interrupted occasionally by lunch on private islands and cake and wine in offices), weekends of ploughing through Chinese hieroglyphics and scrawls, several working breakfasts of parties exchanging the previous night's a-dragon-ate-our-project! nightmares, documents were signed and exchanged, accompanied by firm handshakes and optimistic wide grins immortalised in pixels.

Just in time for the arrival of the ex-roommate from London via Melbourne and the investment banker posse, here to mount a hostile takeover of Singapore and paint it redder than OPI's Vodka & Caviar. Except that they got promptly lost in the shopping maze that is Vivocity.

After everyone had found each other and noshed and beered and discussed the future of derivatives and securitisation and exchanged phone cam photos of newly-purchased apartments and yachts, the ex-roomie slipped me a litte piece of paper when no one was looking. "I lit a candle for you at St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne" it said. And I really did, said the ex-roomie. But don't give me any theological flak ok. Just know that I did it for you.

Another night found us sitting in a shop-space in Bukit Merah. Can I...can I..., the person making the reservation had stuttered. You want the foie gras right? said the astute waitress at Cilantro. And so it came to pass that we came into knowledge of S$12 of panfried crispy outside and meltingly creamy inside goodness.

The foie gras, true to Leslie Tay's description at ieatishootipost, was "served with an excellent brown sauce reduction flavoured with truffle oil and topped with raisins which have been soaked in black vinegar and sweetened with rock suger". It was plated with mango slices and caramelised onions.

The rather tiny tender lamb rack was "marinated with lemon grass and other spices before grilling and served with a piquant brown sauce" and accompanied by chopped mango, potato in sweet and sour sauce and mint sauce.

The "curried butter" (and cheese?) escargot was decent but a bit gritty.

Even better food awaits next week, courtesy of Andrew Reid and Mike Raiter (as if titles meant anything, currently lecturer in Old Testament and Hermeneutics at Ridley College Melbourne and principal of the Bible College of Victoria respectively). [EDIT: Mike Raiter at the ARPC Equip Conference 2008 here.]

This week, getting stuck into Romans 8 was priceless ("there is no charge for awesomeness...or attractiveness"). Good for an afterwork wind-down; brilliant as a nightcap and a tuck-in, far better than the mauled-by-bear/survived-1-month-in-Amazon/conquered-drug-addiction feel-good Readers' Digest literature; marvellous for Christians getting long in the teeth and starting to flail about faint-heartedly in dark waters.

The young Christian convert is always full of untempered optimism, certain that he can convert the whole world and that sin can no longer corrupt his redeemed body. He is scornful of older Christians struggling to put to death the sin in their own bodies and wonders if, good gracious!, they were really converted in the first place.

But the older Christian is wiser and hopefully, more humble. And the apostle Paul concurs:

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:15 - 24)

Who will deliver us from this body of death? Why, Jesus Christ of course. And Romans 8 shows us how. The point of Romans 8 is not that we return to the new-born naivety of earlier days but to look our enemies, both within and without, who shake our confidence in our salvation, full in the face.

The enemy within is the sinful nature of which all of us are only too cognisant. We are all sinners deep deep down. Our sinful nature is not a foreign body that can be cast off easily like a garment. It is our skin, our flesh, our inner-most me. There is no one good, not even one. As many a preacher has said, if we knew what was in the heart of the most gifted godly speaker, we wouldn't listen to them for a moment. And if the speaker knew the hearts of the congregation, he wouldn't speak to them for a moment either. If the only way we could judge if we are right with God is our current state, then it would be no wonder that we grow faint-hearted at our utter depravity and perversion. How can Paul then say, cheerfully, "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1)? Hello, major non sequitur, no?

No. It is perfectly logical that still-sinful believers will not be condemned. This is not because we are somehow enabled to live perfect lives and fulfil God's law but because Christ has perfectly fulfilled God's law on our behalf, his sacrifice in our place has paid for the right punishment for our sin so that we do not have to pay the price (= eternal death) for our own sin (Romans 8:1 - 4). Therefore, says Romans 5:1 - 5,

since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The Spirit is not an impersonal force but a person. He is given to us at our conversion. We do not get converted first and then, when conditions are optimal, the Spirit saunters along to make us holier-than-thou. When we were unregenerate people, our unregenerate minds were set only on things of the flesh. And so our minds condemned us because to set the mind on anything but God is death. Yet we were completely unable to see our situation, much less turn back to God and be saved. We were unable to change our own mindset and had no hope of pleasing God. (Romans 8:5 - 8)

But God gave us his Spirit, the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2) so called because by wonderfully overhauling our minds, he drags us from death (as just punishment for rebelling against God) to life (because we are able to repent and take hold of the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf). We can now desire what God desires and strive to please him.

The Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ. If Christ is seated at the right hand of God in heaven, how can he be in us? (Romans 8:9 - 10) It is not that Christ is physically in us but his Spirit is, and he establishes Christ's lordship and rule in us. We do not make Christ our Lord. It is Christ who is making us his servants; it is Christ who controls us by his Spirit, which is why we live such painful lives: indwelling sin with indwelling Spirit together in us.

And this Spirit of life and of Christ is also the Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead. If he is dwelling in us, then he is God's guarantee to us that God will also spare us from death from condemnation. (Romans 8:11)

The Spirit not only plays a part in overhauling our worldview so that we can turn back to God and be saved through the blood of Christ; he also leads us to mortify the misdeeds of the body (not that the body/flesh per se is bad. Rather, the body is a metaphor for our entire being that is set against God). He constantly renews our mindset and strengthens our godly desires. Repentance is a life-long matter. We have to keep saying "no" to our sinful natures. When the Spirit draws us back to God, it is not cheap grace. We take brutal steps to severe all ties with the sin we formerly clung so dearly to. (Romans 8:12 - 14)

And we soon realise that we are failing all the time. In the agony of Romans 7:15 -24 above, it is easy to quickly fall into despair when we are disobedient. Surely we are not worthy of God. Surely God will now pull away the rug (or the trapdoor of the gallows) from under our feet.

Well, we were never worthy of God in the first place, so that's a fairly moot point. But when God, in undeserved mercy, gave us his Spirit, this Spirit was also the Spirit of adoption as God's sons. We became children of God. The Spirit was not one of slavery so that we need to do something to gain God's attention or approval and become fearful when we don't perform up to KPI expectations. (Romans 8:15 - 17)

If we have repented of our rebellion against God and acknowledged Christ as Lord, then we have the Spirit of life. And if we have the Spirit of life, of Christ, of God who raised Jesus from the dead, we have the Spirit of the adoption as God's sons. And we can be certain that the same grace and power that raised Jesus from the dead, and that gave us access to our Father's presence so that we can pray to him and cry "Abba! Father!" and be sure that he hears us, will ensure that we do not fall away as we keep turning back to God and relying on the work of Christ to save us.

Enemy without (Romans 8:17 - 39) - akan datang here

Privé Bakery Café
2 Keppel Bay Vista
GF Marina @ Keppel Bay
Tel: 6776 0777

Cilantro Modern Asia
Blk 28 Jln Bukit Merah, #01-4476 S(152028)
Tel: 9795 0289
(Cilantro is not the place to go for mushroom soup. Even if you are a Campbell's fan.)

Dick Lucas' talks on Romans 8 at Proclamation Trust's Evangelical Ministry Assembly in 1997 are excellent even if the dear man is rather late in getting to the point. Listen to Romans 8:1 - 17.

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Working through current series on Romans:
First Thai, Jay Chou's Birthday Concert and Romans 1
Feasting and Larval Thoughts on Faith and Romans 4
Privé, Cilantro and the Marvellous Comfort of Romans 8:1 - 16
Basil Alcove and the Pre-destination-based Comfort of Romans 8:17 - 39

Opera In The Park On Sunny Weekends and Successful Cities

One year on and Singapore is hosting the inaugural World Cities Summit 2008. Unfortunately, it has also been tossed out of Monocle's top 20 listing of the world's most liveable cities.

We were lounging on the lawn at the Singapore Botanical Gardens. On the picnic mat: a little brown basket, good Ford Farm oakwood smoked cheese, a rather squished baguette, honey-baked gammon ham, sweet beetroot, sweet strawberries, a pitcher of iced homemade strawberry lemonade for the hot afternoon and a frisbee. Later, a boy would eat strawberries voraciously then put a foot on the cheese.

And we were discussing countries of residence. I'd previously been pegged as one of the country folk, given to Land Rovers and the great outdoors, long woodland hikes and fresh air, composting and matted hair. Be that as it may, I'd said, still I will need good access to an urban centre, a city, a metropolis. For the music, I may have added, but the Singapore Lyric Opera Children's Choir began to sing.

(What is there to say about Darrell Ang and the inaugural Opera In The Park? Nothing about acoustics obviously. Nothing about the grandoise costumes that would have wilted in the heat. There was no space for a deus ex machina. And there was time only for scraps, "operatic favourites". Still, great to get out and lie about in the balmy weather and listen to Mozart and Mascagni. But as the afternoon wore on, more and more people were pressed around our picnic mat. Perhaps, I'd suggested, we can bring durians next time so everyone will give us a wide berth. Right on cue, the unmistakable scent of durian wafted past. Dog poo! complained the ang moh next door but did not budge.)

[The] clustering [of musicians in cities] is puzzling because music-making requires little, if anything, in the way of physical input (such as iron ore or coal) to succeed, and they don't generate economies of scale.

Because musical and artistic endeavours require little more than small groups to make their final products, you would think that musicians should be able to live anywhere they want.

Music scenes have every reason to "fly apart" and spread out geographically, especially in this age of the Internet and social media. But they don't. Instead, they concentrate and cluster in specific cities and regions... (The Globe and Mail, Why making the scene makes good cents for the rest of us)

We are far removed from the days of 17th century Vienna, and even 1990s' Madchester. Still, people go to the city to test their ideas, perform, learn, sell, discuss, share. And they do this physically and digitally, in and around cities like Goteborg and soon maybe Shanghai. Richard Florida suggests that the congregation of musicians in cities demonstrates that the concept of "place", especially in developed countries, has leapfrogged over vocation in the Abraham Maslow's pyramid of skilled, educated people in their twenties and thirties. More people have the means to be more internationally mobile than ever before in human history. And wherever they go, they bring to a city large amounts of human capital, which helps increase entrepreneurship and deepen the area's talent pool. The highest levels of economic growth and development is concentrating in cities, and certain cities are experiencing much faster economic prosperity expansion than others. The same migration brings people who stimulate development by moving to neglected neighborhoods and making long-term investments in schools, homes and businesses.

Florida refutes Thomas L. Friedman's assertion that the world is flat; the world is spiky and the peaks are the cities. Tyler Brûlé totally had his finger on the pulse with the macro-vision Monocle. Micro-vision Wallpaper*-ing had become so yesterday.

And the folk in developing emerging economies know this. Replacing economists and technocrats in the political power stables are urban planners and city visionaries, shaven-headed and goateed, touting creative urban renewal schemes in Macs and Moleskines. Chatting and brainstorming offline* with some of them over the last year has been interesting.

And it is the economies emerging from decades of communism/socialism that promise the most fun. Imagine SimCity divinity, a pliant population, vast untapped resources and foreign money lining up eagerly at your door. What could stop you from building a city (or two, or ten) other planners can only dream of, straitjacketed as they are by local/national politics, interest groups, exhausted resources and saturated markets?

And what, in the first place, characterises a successful city? Even if one assumes, simplistically, economic growth as the most important characteristic of a good city, economic growth, according to Florida, cannot be divorced from a vibrant urban environment: "regional economic growth is powered by creative people, who prefer places that are diverse, tolerant and open to new ideas".

The perfect city, the place a talented global nomad would want to stash his Yohji Yamamoto and build his life and career in, is less about cleanliness, safety, healthcare and good schools for the kids; it isn't about iconic buildings (see also Roger Scruton, Cities For Living in City Journal), new sports stadiums or pedestrian malls; it is about buzz and energy and a thriving counterculture. "The same kind of community that allows a music scene, an art scene, a gay scene to develop also allows entrepreneurs to come into those communities to mobilise resources," Florida says. As cities come under increasing pressure to compete for global talent, it is not surprising that the governments of certain cities have seen it necessary to make ambiguous statements about emerging tolerance.

(Well, that just takes care of the humans. But what about the environment? The rise of deliberately developed sustainable eco-cities suggests that the world has embraced stewardship of the environment as necessary to entry to the clique of hip and cool kids.)

But before governments and city councils join the curated graffiti fad and panhandle for the pink dollar, it's worth querying the accuracy of Florida's theories about the relationship between urban economic growth and "the creative class". Does "the creative class" actually contribute to economic growth (see Steven Malanga, The Curse of the Creative Class in City Journal)? And if so, is it actually urban density and diversity that hothouses collaborations and creativity (see Anya Kamenetz, The Laws of Urban Energy in Psychology Today)? And if it is, how can urban planners and city CEOs avoid the pitfalls of eg. urbanism myths: over-relying on high profile, "sexy" projects for urban regeneration; having an unhealthy fascination with unique, charismatic civic leaders; misapplying of other cities' approaches etc (see Five Innovation Myths Applied to Urbanism)?

There is immense power in governing a group of people and planning their living space. And with great power, as the superhero sage advice goes, comes great responsibility. Urban places are such intricate and complex ecosystems. How can we avoid, in our best-intentioned enthusiasm, taking an existing city to bits and boinking ourselves on the head with the pieces?

My money is on going back to the one who created the world in the first place. He alone as architect and designer of the universe should be able to give better advice than the world's most highly-paid (but inevitably ignorant) consultant. And this much at least is clear from the instruction manual on human beings: WARNING: sex outside a one man-one woman marriage not according to manufacturer's specification. Misuse will result in damage and death. (Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:10).

The "creative class" theory is probably due for a bit of an overhaul.

For the succulent sweetness of sunshine, green grass, good food, good friends and a good God:
Edson Sunday, Lovely Sunday (Pelle Carlberg)
The Secret Life of Sofia Nanda Devi (myspace)
The Secret Life of Sofia Outside (myspace)
Starlet Sunshine (myspace)
Airliner Everything That's You
Acid House Kings London School of Economics (myspace)
Acid House Kings I Write Summer Songs For No Reason
Starlet When The Sun Falls On My Feet
Airiel Sugar Crystals (featuring Ulrich Schnauss) (myspace)
Sambassadeur Between The Lines (myspace)
Sambassadeur Kate
Brideshead Love Makes The Sun Shine Bright
Irene Little Things (That Tear Us Apart)
Red Sleeping Beauty Summer Tells Stories (myspace)
The Maccabees The Picnic Song
Oh No! Oh My! Walk In The Park (myspace)




Also, though not on last.fm:
Dirty On Purpose Girls & Sunshine - download from SXSW 2006 (myspace)
Plants and Animals Feedback In The Field - watch youtube vid (myspace)
Cloud Cult Bobby's Spacesuit - hidden track. Watch youtube vid (myspace)
Weezer Island In the Sun - listen on youtube

Thank you Britpop, North American shoegaze, Swedish twee and Labrador Records.

*cf online: Airoots, All About Cities, BLDBLOG, Urbanology, Where and even, Antiplanner! :-)

A follow-on from what we learnt from 2 Corinthians 1:11 from Paul Barker and for everyone who's asked about these folk from ARPC - so information isn't cold and Nth-hand (though that shouldn't interfere with the efficacy of prayer!):

• Doris Teo blogs at http://doristeosblog.blogspot.com/
• updates on Richard Chiam at http://fobhug942.blogspot.com/

Youth Camp: Revision Party 2008, Being Pwnd by Proverbs and the Afflictions of 2 Corinthians

It appears that the occupational density of my registered place of residence will revert to normal for the next week or so. Hooray own bed.

Youth camp was fairly brilliant. Most of the campers were due for exams after the school holidays so it was a revision party of sorts: the campers clocked in hours revising but also had time to explore a relationship with God, play games, take all sorts of silly photos of themselves, tell dumb jokes, tease each other and of course, eat constantly. The senior campers ("scampers") made good use of the sports facilities at Prince George's Park Residences on the fringe of the National University of Singapore campus. Fully worth the S$80 per pax camp fee, I say.


Some mornings, there was good old bread and spread for breakfast.


Other mornings, the lovely scampers got enthusiastically creative with the trays of eggs.


The wannabely-named Foodgle Hub food court supplied lunch, which was for the most part quite passable. Except for the bland Chinese store.

Dinner, happily, was home-cooked. And the dessert was a real highlight:


Behold the raspberry pavlova.


Behold the banoffe pies. "Not as good as the ones at the last camp," said a repeat camper,"the bananas you used this time aren't as sweet". What gourmand monsters of the future are we moulding?


Behold the lemon pound cake and brownie for breaks between talks and studies.


The scampers indulged in board games and basketball during revision periods, and even came up with a new game involving scoopball scoops, old tennis balls and Flingo bibs. Excellent. And better yet, the bright eyes that got wider and wider as their place in biblical history dawned on them progressively as we worked through Vaughan Robert's God's Big Picture.

An example of one series of dumb jokes:

"How do you put an elephant in the fridge?"
"You open the fridge door, put the elephant in and close the door."

"How do you put a giraffe in the fridge?"
"You open the fridge door, take the elephant out, put the giraffe in and close the door."

"One day, all the animals had a meeting but the giraffe wasn't there. Why?"
"He was still in the fridge."

"One day, Tarzan was swinging around in the jungle. He went over the crocodile-infested river, lost his hold on the twine and fell into the river, but he wasn't eaten by crocodiles. Why?"
"Because the crocodiles were at the meeting."

*Major groan*


The wide game went well for once this year. I've been progressively dumbing them down through the years and this one was so juvenile that I was afraid it would be too boring, but surprisingly, everyone loved it. The highlight apparently was getting to make their own ice-cream: imagine high girls shrieking, "Oh! This is better than Ben & Jerry's! Now that I can make my own ice-cream, I will never buy Häagen-Dazs again!" Meant for the game to demonstrate (1) chemical reactions in a pleasant yummy way - the cola geyser with Diet Coke and Mentos, and the endothermic reaction present in adding sodium chloride/salt to ice to make the ice-cream; and (2) how to live wisely in the world - first, knowing/checking where one should be heading before setting out (one group was on a bus to the far end of campus because they hadn't read the clue properly) and secondly, relating properly to one's neighbours (I was careful not to mention that this was a competition. Making the ice-cream required the co-operation of both teams. The initial reaction from the first team was, unfortunately,"Quick! Hide our clue! Don't let them see it!" and that from a leader no less. One hopes he was merely playing the devil's very persuasive advocate.).


Oh and, erm, here's evidence that there was actually some serious studying going on. And serious snacking too.

Am glad for the encouragement of 2 Corinthians at the ARPC church camp (videos and audio here) that directly preceded youth camp. I'd been struggling to understand the Book of Proverbs, going at it late into the Shanghai and Malaccan nights to no avail and feeling terribly pwnd.

It wasn't until the late night drive back to Singapore after church camp, amidst the "unflappable!", "unsqwackable!" banter, the shameless making of matchmaking plans and the exhaustive run-through of everyone's ipods, that the truth of 2 Corinthians occurred to my rather dim mind. But it wasn't really till I was driving home, too tired to read directional arrows, after youth camp that the same truth shone in a little further.

No Bible-believer would ever expressedly claim that we contribute anything to God's work. We mouth the right doctrine that the harvest is God's, but we actually think that our seed-planting and watering skills are what make the crops grow. Or I realised I did anyway. After sweating over Proverbs for 2 whole weeks, I was exhausted and burdened to the point of tears by the responsibility of having to teach God's word which I could scarcely understand in the context of the whole Bible. What's wrong with me? I asked, am I going mad? What was wrong was that I'd always assumed (but would never have admitted) that understanding God's word was dependent on my own intellectual capabilities. But how could a sinful mind understand Scripture? Only through the revelation of God through the Spirit.*

We are jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7), the cheap disposable crockery of New Testamental times. We bits of almost-nothings really like to collect little scout badges and hang human accolades around ourselves when in fact, we are nothing fancy, nothing special.

Said the apostle Paul:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:8 - 12)

The weakness and brokenness inherent in our fallen humanness is no obstacle to the treasure of God's gospel. The fragrance of the gospel and the salvation of others does not depend on us but on the efficacy of God's work. Paul doesn't lose heart when he is afflicted, persecuted and struck down, because it is the gospel which contains power not he. In fact, the weaker he is, the stronger the word (2 Corinthians 4:7), for no man can both give the impression that he himself is clever and proclaim with honesty that Jesus alone is mighty to save.

By the end of youth camp, I was so tired out by the lack of sleep and early mornings, and with anxiety and with being angry at myself for being anxious and not relying on God, that I feared I was becoming rather slurry and incoherent during Bible studies. Those who presume to teach will be judged more severely (James 3:1), yet we know that no one is sufficient for the job (2 Corinthians 2:16b).

It is humbling yet liberating to know that despite our weakness and sinfulness, despite that person who pontificates about Bible truths so forcefully and eloquently yet fails to live them out in his life, despite that other person who thinks the world of herself and self-righteously judges and criticises everyone else and says "I cannot eat this stuff!" about food others slaved so hard to prepare, it is God's Spirit that penetrates and does his will in those whom he has called his children.

Sadly, our hearts and minds are so perverted that sometimes, even if we do not misuse this knowledge to jettison personal responsibility for working hard at understanding Scripture and growing in godliness, we think that our weaknesses and afflictions mean that we are more holy and we boast of our pseudo-martyrdom.

Yet even our afflictions are not opportunity for self-centred self-pity:

God of all comfort...comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:4)

When we are afflicted, it is primarily for the benefit of others, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves have been/are being comforted by God. It is not about sharing our experiences per se (ie, so that only those who have been afflicted with cancer can comfort others afflicted with cancer) but sharing how we have received consolation from God - that God's grace alone is sufficient for us each day.

...we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8b - 10)

In his grace and his love, God does tend to take away things we didn't realise we relied on - our family, friends, wealth, health, job, self-esteem - to make us rely on him alone. It is in times like that that we realise that we hadn't quite been dependent on God as we thought we had.

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1:11)

Again, we are sometimes so self-centred that we are unwilling to share our needs with others. We ask people to pray for us not as an act of self-indulgence but for their benefit - to prepare them to give thanks to God, not that we are healed by that God has kept us and persevered us in our affliction.

We may have experienced the mundane sort of life that does not lend itself to speaking engagements. We may never have experienced childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a close relative, the trauma of a broken family, nor a dramatic conversion from a life of crime and gangsterism and drug addiction. No one will ask us to tell our testimonies; no speaker will use us as sermon illustrations; commemorative books will not list us as "Warriors of the Faith"; Readers' Digest will not pay S$150 for an article on our insipid lives.

But our goal is not dubious fame amongst humans but to do our duty sincerely and honestly in the sight of God (2 Corinthians 2:17). Our goal is not an accumulation of Bible knowledge but growth in godliness, in Christ-likeness, so that even as we live in this life, we are being transformed daily into the image of the Lord, from one degree of glory to another, through the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).

I pine for the Day that we shall look at each other and find all who'd trusted in him greatly changed so that we are all mirror images of Christ himself. But in the meanwhile, we do not lose heart, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with the believers whom we serve into his presence (2 Corinthians 4:14).

PS: There is nothing like a youth camp to be reminded how old one is: the lack of stamina, the lack of suppleness and the young campers who cannot conceive of an adult above 21 years who isn't a senior citizen. We could despair as our body breaks down and as we become less "relevant", but though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16 - 18).

PPS: The key to Proverbs is possibly Proverbs 22:17 - 19:

17 Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise;
apply your heart to what I teach,

18 for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart
and have all of them ready on your lips.

19 So that your trust may be in the LORD,
I teach you today, even you.

The ultimate aim of this collection of wise sayings is not so much to help us with day-to-day living as to enable us to trust in the LORD. How? By showing us a glimpse of the order of the created world that, according to Romans 1:18 - 20, ought to tell us plainly of God's eternal power and divine nature. See also Peter Sanlon's article on Proverbs 1:20 - 33 Knowing Wisdom, Knowing Jesus.

PPPS: I later discovered that the bottle marked "Vanilla Essence" in the fridge had actually contained calvados. This might have contributed somewhat to the craziness after the ice-cream-making.

PPPPS: This was the first camp I'd scored a proper bed thanks to the B. It was a Seahorse mattress and built exactly like a plank of wood. Am now a new convert to the technique of sleeping on one's back. This should greatly lessen the risk of, erm, cot death. And, I am told, wrinkles.

Edit (17th June): In a fit of youthful over-enthusiasm, one of the campers has started a fan group for the camps on Facebook and invited all his friends. He's also changed his FB status to say that it is better to be at the camps all the time. Some of the scampers say they have been suffering camp withdrawal symptoms. I expect the new heavens and new earth will be far better than anything we clay jars can offer in this fallen world. But to enjoy that people have to first come to saving knowledge of our Saviour.

ARPC Church Camp 2008 on 2 Corinthians "Strength in Weakness"

Just back from the ARPC church camp.

Thankful that the Shanghai negotiations ended fairly speedily which allowed for 1 whole day in Singapore before hitching a ride up to Malacca for the camp.

There're few things for rivalling the fellowship opportunities of a church camp that brings everyone together in one place so that if you attempted to go up to your room for a quick power nap, you'd still be found in the lobby 1.5 hours later, having only moved 5 steps closer to the lift, chatting with people you hadn't met for ages and tickling babies you were meeting for the first time.

We stayed at Hotel Equatorial again this year, across the road from supper staples:

Ramly burgers,


maggi mee goreng and


satay, and beside the snack haven that is Melaka Megamall.


Already, before we'd even reached the hotel, 60 crispy wantons stuffed with juicy prawns encountered a horde of hungry Singaporeans and fulfilled their tasty destinies.

But the greatly anticipated meaty stuff was God’s word. The guest speaker this year was Paul Barker, a man not given to much humour nor eye-opening illustrations but inspite of that (or, because of that?) the message of Paul's fourth letter to the Corinthian church (2 Corinthians) shone through gloriously.

More after youth camp which commences in a few hours!

Shanghai and Saving the World

In Shanghai for hit-and-run negotiations.

Shanghai Skyline at Lunchtime. No, it was not about to rain.

The 50th floor boardroom had an impressive view of the smog settled comfortably above the the bluish-grey skyline.

China is a country that wants to win and win big on a global scale, and Shanghai's iconic stores (eg. Shanghai No. 1 Department Store and Shanghai First Food Store)

McDonald's fronts the Shanghai First Food Store

make no secret of their continuing ambition. So perhaps they might have been happy to hear that they have now overtaken the USA to be named the No.1 source of industrial carbon dioxide in the world.

At lunch, after the usual business traveller talk about the airline with the cutest stewardesses, the most efficient way to collect frequent flyer miles, civil servants boycotting Singapore Airlines if flying from its home city and reviews of the best white and black truffles, we were discussing the current state and the future of China. At one point I noted that I hadn't seen a single bird since arriving in Shanghai. Had the smog killed them all? No. During the cultural revolution, all birds were culled. Were they culled because they appeared in numerous paintings and were therefore bourgeoise? No, they were bourgeoise because they'd competed with hardworking farmers for food.

By dessert, we had moved on to environmentalism, the new transnational ecumenical religion. Still mourning the absence of feathered mammals, I tried to raise the possibility of migratory birds repopulating areas designated as nature reserves in eco-cities. My mandarin being of No. 1 standard, I said,"Yeah, well, what about 那些搬家的鸟..." The entire table lapsed into shocked silence, after which someone almost put his eye out with a dessert fork, laughing.

But there is yet hope for our feathered friends in the future of this city. The great bronze sculpture that sits in the lobby of the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall features flocks of birds in frozen flight over the *iconic* 2010 skyline of Shanghai.

Museums and exhibitions, by the editing necessarily incumbent in their curatorship (argh, was that an OSF phrase?!), by their omissions and angled explanations, always give interesting insights into how a country views itself, and so, how one should relate to it. The bronze relief cast in honour to the BIE Inquiry Mission who'd help select Shanghai for World Expo 2010 might be instructive to those trying to take China to task for perceived human rights violations.

Model of the Future Shanghai (Note lack of smog)

The penultimate exhibit in the hall was about the eco-city being built in Chongming on Dongtan Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Nothing so warms the cockles of an old tree-hugger's heart than to hear about committed sustainable developments, and to watch with mounting excitement those longheld dreams of large-scale solar and wind energy harvesting, organic farming and peaceful co-existence with nature appearing to come to fruition.*

Saving the environment is one of the few causes around which to rally the entire world. Thomas Friedman recently touted the "new green ideology" as a way to get over the "trauma and divisiveness of the Bush years". It has, he said, "the power to mobilise liberals and conservatives, evangelicals, and atheists, big business and environmentalists around an agenda that can both pull us together and propel us forward."

And true enough, everyone is getting on the messanic bandwagon to save the world and make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race. Mother Nature has become our god and to question the premises of the eco-revolution is shocking blasphemy.

But the underlying assumptions are far too numerous:

1. that there is such a concept as nature or the environment;
2. that the use of the rhetoric of rights as justification is correct since this rhetoric always runs into problem of the necessary prioritisation of such rights;
3. that we are correct in what we think is wrong with the environment, with climate change etc;
4. that what is wrong with the environment is due solely or substantially to pollution so that by controlling pollution, we can control whatever is wrong with the environment;
5. that it is possible to define pollution;
6. that it is possible to stop pollution without other knock-on effects...

"Do we have the capacity intellectually to understand complex systems at the level of the globe well enough to make intelligently thought-through conscious perturbations that result in only the consequences that we want, and nothing else?" asked Josh Tosteson, the curriculum coordinator at Biosphere 2. Even without the Magic 8 Ball, I'd hazard, from the chequered history of humankind, that "my sources say 'no'".

To those who do not know God, well-meaning eco-schemes are grand and empowering. But they are ultimately naive. To those who do know God, I suppose eco-schemes present (if infact valid) a bit of temporary caretaking on the basis of Genesis 1 and 2. But ultimately, we understand that just as we have rebelled against God, so "the environment" will always refuse to co-operate with us. And we also understand that we have barely scratched the surface with our science about this intricately-constructed universe in which we live. And, in anycase, we know too that this world and its frozen mammoths and giant squids and climate change will soon pass away when Christ comes again to institute a new world. In the meanwhile, there are probably more pressing matters at hand.

*Don't suppose these improvements will be accompanied by concurrent progress in the field of little snacks like 小笼馒头/小笼包 xiaolongbaos, 饺子 dumplings and 包子 baozis.

Mega queues for the takeaway but the xiaolongbao at 南翔馒头店 (Nan Xiang Man Tou Dian) in 豫园 (Yu Yuan) was pretty rough stuff. The skin held the soup well enough but the top of the xiaolongbao, where the skin was pinched together, required quite a bit of chewing. And they don't serve Chinese tea there. All tea came in a bottle, they said.

Pork and green vegetable dumplings at 大娘水饺 (Da Niang Shui Jiao), the McDs of 饺子 (jiao zi, dumplings), tasted of drain. Good thing I chickened out on the chicken blood soup. No hot Chinese tea here either. Only overly sweet oolong in a bottle.

But because I like my bao skin slightly chewy, the bao zi at 高安路 (Gao An Lu) were great for breakfast. The thicker-than-Crystal-Jade exterior also helped keep in the sauce that accompanied the meat.

**And what's with the great firewall on biblegateway, blogger and flickr?

Pomegranates, Pomegranate Ice-Cream and Psalms

Until recently, she'd flitted only in the peripheral vision of our experience, mysterious and vague.

A friend from Dubai was back for a visit so we sat around into the early hours of the morning catching up and reminiscing about old times. At first, when we were wet behind the ears and new to the Middle East, we'd been amused to find pomegranate arils garnishing every single dish. I'd distinguished myself by poking them around and saying,"Red ruby ah?" They didn't add much in the way of flavour to anything. So I'd been surprised that anyone would have believed that Persephone sold her freedom for four pomegranate seeds in Hades.

In any case, when a mound of Iranian pomegranates winked at me at NTUC, I took a couple home and made pomegranate ice-cream*.

This is Nigella Lawson's (even-a-monkey-with-half-a-brain-could-do-it) no-churn pomegranate ice-cream recipe.

Ingredients
2 pomegranates
1 lime
175g icing sugar
500ml double cream

Preparation

1. Juice the pomegranates and the lime and strain the juices into a bowl.
   
2. Add the icing sugar and whisk to dissolve.
3. Whisk in the double cream and keep whisking until soft peaks form in the pale pink cream.
4. Spoon and smooth the ice cream into the airtight container of your choice and freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
5. Scatter with some pomegranate seeds before you eat it.

Obviously this monkey possesses less than half a brain since I didn't even have the patience to follow the recipe. Anyhoo, the ice-cream was fairly creamy and, in vast quantities that popped in your mouth like juicy salmon roe, the pomegranate arils were cold and sweet. Next time, might try reducing the pomegranate juice over fire to achieve a more intensely pomegranatey ice-cream.

Love the whole pomegranate look: the shape and colour somehow conspire to give the fruit the air of a relic from medieval times. But several thousand years before that, the LORD was already telling Moses to decorate the hem of his priestly robes with the fruit (Exodus 28:33-34). And even without Tim Gunn's fashion tips, these were good enough for ministering before God. (Actually, if Tim Gunn'd heard God's instructions on the priestly garments, he would have said,"That's a lot of look!" But even though divine taste might flunk out of Project Runway, guess who'll win in the end?) Later on, Solomon had pomegranate latticework done in bronze in the great temple dedicated to the LORD (1 Kings 7:18, 20, 42; 2 Chronicles 3:16; 2 Chronicles 4:13). When they rebuilt the temple centuries later, they did not neglect this detail (Jeremiah 52:22 - 23).

Like the vine and the fig, the pomegranate appears to be some sort of reminder to the agricultural Jews of God's divine provision and sustenance. I think.

Half-gnawed leftovers from our recent 2 Samuel studies include discussions on reading the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. The usual Sunday school/ARPC/Project Timothy/evangelical way insists that the answer is "Jesus". But what is the link? And how does one arrive at that certain conclusion?

Still much to think through but for consideration, Michael Reeves (via Dave Bish) handling the Psalms:
Mike Reeves - Psalm 1
Mike Reeves - Psalm 51

PS: In other news, I wish to record the utter shock of being told, at a wedding rehearsal in a Methodist church, that the wedding photographers were not to get up on the carpeted stage area that the pastor alternately termed "the altar" and "the holy place". "Free church people", he said, did not respect this. In order not to jeopardise the chances of the couple finally getting married, I desisted from pointing out that God was very capable of causing to suddenly fail to exist photographers (or errant OT temple priests) trespassing on holy ground, and that the flower arrangement in the "holy place" had wilted quite badly and started to decompose. Maybe I should have suggested a comely clutch of pomegranates.

*Says Robert L. Wolke in What Einstein Told His Cook 2:
"Does eating ice cream in hot weather cool you off?...The answer...is in fact, no. After all, we are warm-blooded creatures with thermostats set at 37 degrees celcius, and eating something cold cannot change that. Our cooling mechanism is purely a surface phenomenon: the evaporation of perspiration from our skins, assisted, when we're lucky, by a breeze that hastens the process. Putting ice cream into one's mouth serves only to cool the mouth. you'd do much better by smearing the ice cream all over your body."