Dear....
'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me. Because the Lord has anointed Me to
preach the good tidings to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted.
To proclaim liberty to the captives. And the opening of the prison to those who
are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.....to comfort all who
mourn.'
Isaiah 61:1-2
The desire for freedom has gone viral, from Tunisia to Egypt and now Yemen and
soon possibly engulfing the whole of North Africa including Morocco, Chad and
Libya and down South East to the oil rich Gulf states in the Middle East.
Is that good news? Reality is happiness of a yoke lifted might be temporary for
it is likely to be replaced by a burden of an equally repressive regime that
will arise out of the anarchy.
This being Chinese New Year, it might seem not the most appropriate to discuss
the possibility of the world like a bunny hopping from the frying pan into the
fire, but the contagion has just taken on a different plane. From the feverish greed of easy money that led to the near global collapse from the sub-prime crisis that almost swarmed many once August financial institutions in the Western world, the world
has moved on to the European sovereign debt quagmire that we are still trying to
get out of. And now, with the revolutionary zeal fast spreading amongst the
people of the Arab world, will it lead to rocketing oil prices and increased
regional tensions that will further weaken an already structurally unsound
global economy?
"Family" was the sharing I had planned, this being Chinese New Year where family
reunions is the norm amongst Chinese families. And "Family" was intended to be a
"trailer" for the planned launch of my near completed second art book " Happy
Family - a mirror of God's love. But man plans, God directs, and just this
morning, the Lord placed the thought in my heart to go on my knees and "On
bended knees" is what He has led me to as this next sharing.
The late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as mentioned previously was a famously
pious man. He had a dark mark on his forehead as proof of his deep
commitment to prayers, having bowed for long hours on the prayer mat towards
Mecca. What would he think of the present bloodshed and chaos in Egypt?
Unprecedented it might seem, at least in terms of civic disobedience in the Arab
world, but unprecedented is the norm rather than the exception in the world we
lived in, in recent years.
'Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken
him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell
not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of
mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his
house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon the house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.'
Matthew 7:24-27
More than knee deep in the swirling flood waters, the citizens of Queensland
might be, but it is quite a double whammy to be now be literally bowled over by
the monstrous cyclone now blowing through their same land. Darwin in the
Northern Territories of Australia was flattened by a cyclone back in the 1970s,
but would the same happen to Queensland today? And how resilient will the
Australians be in the face of such intense calamities?
If today you were subjected to such earth shaking circumstances in your once
placid life, would you go down on your knees in prayerful repentance and
acknowledge the Sovereignty of God as Savior and Lord of your life? A moot point
that can only be proven when the what if turns into reality, but just a few moments back, our good Lord brought me to the opening verse, Isaiah 61:1-2 and its significance.
Most of you would be familiar with the Biblical record(Acts 16:26) of how the Apostle Paul was in a prison, when a great earthquake shook open the prison doors and how it led to the conversion of the once disbelieving prison warden and his family.
And all of us who have come to the faith will agree that genuine repentance and
acceptance of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is usually preceded by
an intense shaking of the very foundations of our once God free life.
The Spirit of God reminded me today that the shaking is intensifying, for man's
sins are taking on deeper roots, but healing is there waiting for all, if only
we would just come out of our delusion and turn to the Lord our God. And God
will shake us even more intensely, for He wants no soul to end up with the devil
in eternal damnation.
'Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour?
But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name...'
John 12:27
Why are we so often oblivious to the obvious? Man being flawed can only choose
to be slaves to the devil or slave to our Sovereign God. This might rankle many
a democratic intellect, but reality is be it in dictatorships repressive or
benevolent, or be it in a democracy, much grief, angst and all failings of the
finite human being remains. Only a life grounded upon the Lord our God will we
be able to overcome the platitudes of a fallen world and only upon the return of
our Lord Jesus Christ can all tears be permanently removed, and temporal
happiness be replaced by permanent joy.
But we must be prepared to go through the fire of refinement, for the
transformation into the likeness of Christ. Only in submitting to God, can we on
His grace overcome. It is not about us strutting in the full regalia of
Christianity like the misguided Crusaders of old who seek to destroy the Muslims
and eradicate them from the Holy Land and eventually came to grief because of
their follies. God is love, and we must overcome resistance through genuine
agape love.
Submission and not resistance is what God looks for. Prayers allow us to come
into communion with the Spirit of God, and prayers will bring our hearts into
alignment with the will of God. On bended knees is not the outward manifestation
of piousness that God desires, but rather God is looking for a heart that is
humble and contrite, a heart that not just accepts Christ as our Savior but is
totally surrendered to the Sovereignty of God, Whose Spirit resides in our hearts.
The shaking that is picking up momentum is not just about waking one up from the
devil's delusions, but the shaking is also a test of the solidity of one's
spiritual foundation, that is, is it grounded upon the bedrock of faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ, or is it standing on flimsy legs of disbelief and
disobedience packaged with a thin layer of professed Christian piousness, that
will quickly fall apart when the shakes intensifies?
This morning, our good Lord left a very deep impression upon my heart. There is
a urgent need, a clarion call for all who profess to be believers to come down
on their knees in prayers. For the prayers of the faithful avails much, and in
turning to God, may He turn His wrath away from sinful men, for the wrath of God
is now with us. And even if God will allow all of us to go through the series of
intense shaking which is now upon us, prayers will solidify the spirit of faith
ingrained in our hearts, so that we will not just be able to stand firm upon Him
in all circumstances, but that He will use us well and mightily in His works, as
once disbelievers are moved to seek our Father in Heaven.
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
(5th Feb 2011)
Up North and North
I have learned to take time with our Lord, to be sure that truly these thoughts
are from Him and not from my finite understanding.
The Lord brought me to the Book of Jeremiah as I prepare to close this sharing,
which interestingly comes after the Book of Isaiah, the latter which opened this
latest sharing.
'But the Lord said to me; " Do not say, 'I am a youth.' For you shall go to all
to whom I send you. And whatever I command you, you shall speak...'
Jeremiah 1:7
'See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms. To root
out and to pull down. To destroy and to throw down. To build and to plant.'
Jeremiah 1:10
'Then the Lord said to me. "Out of the north calamity shall break forth. On all
the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling All the famillies of the
kingdoms of the north, says the Lord. They shall come and each one set his
throne At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. Against all its walls all
around. And against all the cities of Judah. I will utter My judgments Against
them concerning all their wickedness, Because they have forsaken Me. Burned
incense to other gods. And worshiped the works of their own hands.'
Jeremiah 1:14-16
A look at the modern map of Israel( see link
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/archaeology/berytus44/maps/Middle_East98.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/archaeology/berytus44/maps/Middle_East98.html&h=1327&w=1103&sz=225&tbnid=S6c-0jG0uSX85M:&tbnh=246&tbnw=205&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmap%2Bof%2Bmiddle%2Beast&zoom=1&q=map+of+middle+east&usg=__PmJuqQGv3q04vygPX7zlhWDPLN4=&sa=X&ei=CRJNTe6NJ5DsrQfD3czaBg&ved=0CBUQ9QEwAA)
and its surrounds does pop up an interesting observation. All the countries in
NORTH Africa(to the to the West of Israel) are going or about to undergo
great political upheavals. The end result could likely be governments that was
once neutral to friendly to Israel, now transformed into enemies of Israel, and
they are all literally at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem.
And what about NORTH of Israel? Turkey is right smacked there, and once secular
Turkey, a strategic partner of Israel is increasingly moving towards enmity with
Israel instead, as many in Turkey could possibly be yearning for the glorious
days of the Ottoman Empire. And not forgetting NORTH East of Israel, the land of
Syria, long a proxy for Iran, the arch enemy and ancient nemesis of Israel.
Postulations these might seem, but what matters is not what could come, but
rather what are we doing with our spiritual lives?
Are we like the Israelites of old, who God has freed from the bondage of the
Egypt of our lives, who remembered the grace of God in all brevity and has
regressed to our sinful ways as described n Jeremiah 1:16?
It is time to acknowledge our imperfections and come down on our knees while God
is still with us. For it will be too late when circumstances overwhelmed us for
God will not respond to an unresponsive and hardened heart.
'...For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face. But in the time
of trouble They will say, 'Arise and save us.'
But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, If
they can save you in the time of trouble...'
Jeremiah 2:27-28
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