Pearl Tower

Even though it ended up being pretty cloudy today (darn you weather.com!) I just couldn’t hold back anymore…I finally went up into the huge TV tower. I later found out that it was called The Oriental Pearl Tower—such a Chinese name.

When I went to buy my ticket there happened to be a Chinese law enforcement group going up into the tower. They walked in rows of two and lined up looking very official as they received instructions from their squad leader. It looked pretty intimidating from where I was standing, but when I saw the guys up close in the tower they looked like college students—like me. Apparently, every first year university student in China is required to go through a year of military training; it would be like requiring all the first year university students in America to do ROTC training for their first year. Pretty intense.

At the entrance to the Pear Tower I was greeted by a bunch of bunny rabbits hanging on the wall. 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit, and they still had decorations up from the Chinese New Year back in February! And if they are still up as of now, they might be there until the next new year; hanging decorations for the animal of the year in your house is supposed to bring your family good luck.

The Oriental Pearl tower is the largest TV tower in Asia (whoop-de-doo!), and we went up over 800 feet in the air to see a 360° of the city. It was super cool, the views were unreal! The only thing that would’ve made the experience better was if it hadn’t been as foggy/cloudy as it was…but that’s what I get for being impatient and wanting to go up today. In the pictures below I added some effects to make the shots look cooler, but I think they give a distorted picture of the actual cloudiness (it wasn’t too bad).

Today I was meditating a lot on Philippians 2:5-8 (not like “sit cross-legged while humming” meditating…), asking God to let Paul’s words really set into my mind and heart. I came to this passage because I was thinking, ‘If someone asked me who Jesus was, what would I say?’ I don’t think I’ve ever been straight up asked this by someone, but being in a country where a lot of people actually haven’t even heard of his name, the question popped into my mind. The passage goes…

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!”

So Jesus is God, but didn’t think that his equality with God was something to be kept, so he made himself nothing by taking on the form of a human to serve God and people, and became obedient to suffer a criminal’s death. Holy smokes. So Jesus is God (Jesus = God), but Jesus made himself nothing because he didn’t think his equality with God was something to be kept (Jesus ≠ God). It would be important to know that God exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So part of my answer to the question ‘Who is Jesus?’ would be that:

Jesus is God (while being fully human).

Have you heard the term Servant King? Jesus, being God, cared about people so much that he would give up his seat in Heaven, forfeit his powers, and be born into the screwed up and sinful human race (in the lowest class!). Jesus went from the very top to the very bottom of the totem pole to serve the people in the bottom. Mark 10:45 says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” God, the only being that is worthy to be served, came instead to serve people.

Jesus is a servant.

And lastly, Jesus was obedient to the humiliating death for criminals: death on a cross. God, came down to Earth to serve people, was put to death by these people he came to serve. Talk about loving people. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8. And it is through this death that we are saved and our sins are forgiven, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by Spirit,” 1 Peter 3:18.

Jesus is the Savior.

It’s crazy to think how great of a God we have; that he would love a screwed up people so much that he himself would come down to earth and serve us by dying in our place so everyone can have the opportunity to dwell with him forever in his Kingdom; all we need to do is believe this in our hearts and we are saved (John 1:12). This definitely gives Him the glory—saucesome.

If you were wondering, I did not hang out with Jon’s friend today, we’ll be doing so on Friday. It’s Thursday over here, which means tomorrow…

-Alex