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Both Christians and non-Christians understand the POWER of the Word of God.  The Christians know through personal experience and by Scripture, for Paul in writing to the 1st-century Jews (Hebrews 4: 12 Khmer) states: "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

The non-Christians know intuitively the power of Christian Scripture, as reflected by the comments and discriminatory diatribes against Christians, one example being the posts of Christian Scripture in KI-Media (alongside the Buddhist, animistic, atheistic posts, etc.)

This is most unfortunate.  In this current Khmer society where there is a great paucity of quality reading materials, the raging refusal to read, just because it is Christian Scripture, is first and foremost a loss to oneself.  Gandhi and a great many non-Christian philosophers throughout the ages read Christian Scripture and were edified by it.

I was also struck by the confused understanding between coercion/emotional manipulation and open competition of ideas.  Providing access to high quality reading materials, particularly materials which have formed the foundation of the western world, human dignity and the human rights movement as we know it is intentionally or unintentionally viewed mistakenly as a negative or coercion.  I have seen coercion and emotional manipulation by the Christians, as well as by the Buddhists, the Jews, the Muslims, the animists, the atheists etc. and it should be shunned any and every time it is employed, no matter who does it.  One sure sign of coercion is "blind obedience or else", the "or else" being societal sanction, withdrawal of favor or even death.

For me, I am edified when someone shares something that is important to him or her, even if I disagree with that person.  As long I have my thinking cap on, reading and thinking--especially reading of excellent materials and ideas which challenge us to think--are to be always welcome.  That,  simply, is what LEARNING is all about.

It would be useful for all of us periodically to read and re-read Miroslav Volf's concept of "DOUBLE VISION" (click and scroll down to bottom half of the page).

- Theary C. Seng, Phnom Penh, 24 Feb. 2013

. . .

The antonym of humility (below) is PRIDE.

"Pride follows our heels more closely than our very shadow. It cannot be beaten away or bribed away. It is a cancer of the soul. It acts like acid upon our graces. It swells us up with ludicrous self-importance. It chokes the life of prayer, stifles our usefulness, and will, if not brutally treated, sap the spiritual life within us almost to death."

-- Maurice Roberts (The Thought of God)

My favorite place for morning meditation, my apartment's terrace.  Now, re-reading a treasure I received as a Georgetown graduation gift (May 1995) which I loved then and continue to love since -- THE THOUGHT OF GOD -- a compilation of timeless essays.

. . .

My current favorite song:

Your Heart (David)

By Chris Tomlin

. . .

POWERFUL, POWERFUL, POWERFUL sermon on the last book of the Bible, REVELATION, by Dr. Rob Norris (my pastor when I was at Georgetown University and attending his church at nearby Bethesda, Maryland, Fourth Presbyterian Church), especially this one in the Feb/March 2010 series entitled "The Victory Chant of the Over-comers"

. . .

Losing our mother tongue

Opinion by Soprach Tong

The Phnom Penh Post, Feb. 9, 2013

Some young people seemingly pretend to be unable to speak their mother tongue...

But when writing in Khmer, which is their native tongue, no one seems to care about accuracy. Even if the dictionary of Patriarch Chuon Nat is installed on their computer, they never bother to open it...

"Khmer citizens must know the national language clearly, in both oral and written form, to ensure it survives."

. . .

HUMILITY = teachable spirit + flexibility

Here's a simple test if you have humility:

Can you be corrected?

When you are corrected, do you REACT or RESPOND?

(Photo: CBF Global Mission)

. . .

Rare reading materials in the Khmer language that have been edited for clarity and easy comprehension!

With the scarcity of available reading materials in the Khmer language in electronic form where I can edit to raise my larger point of the NEED FOR USE OF PUNCTUATIONS, I am glad I can illustrate using the Khmer Bible.

If you ONLY know English, and this is how you have been habituated to read English, how far would you go in your education?

For the KHMER reader, click here and read this chapter from the book of JOSHUA.

(The verse numbers are acting as a punctuation, but without them, the chaos would be UTTER CHAOS.)

For the ENGLISH reader, click here and read this chapter, but imagine there are no proper nouns (no capitalized words) and no punctuations except for the full stop.

The vocabulary (translation) is very good -- as it done by a committee with checks and rechecks, unlike most of the other translations being produced in the whole of society.  But without commas and other punctuation, is the Khmer chapter clear and understandable?

This is how Cambodians read the Cambodian language. For Cambodians with means or an opportunity to rely on another language, after they're stuck with the Cambodian language (which is very early on), they rely on their 2nd language for knowledge.

But for the MAJORITY of Cambodians who do not know a 2nd language, they have to fight the printed page and mangled language (of misspelling, of "creative" texting-style punctuation, or just run-on phrases) to get even a scant piece of knowledge.