Dear..
‘I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.’
Acts 9:1-9
The rating agency S&P downgraded US Sovereign risk to AA from AAA and the markets went berserk like lemmings over the cliff. One day later and the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke sheepishly indicated that the US interest rates will be kept low for the next two years, and the same lemmings try to do a kangaroo jump from the deep ravine that they so willingly entered a day earlier.
“When the truth dawns” was the intended title for this sharing. Man plans, God directs and the theme “The age of lawlessness” was deeply impressed upon my being and so here goes as the Spirit of our good Lord leads.
To be in step with the Holy Spirit, that is the command from God.
This morning, the Financial Times wrote about the possibility of the Swiss Central Bank pegging the surging Swiss Franc to the moribund Eurodollar, to try to stem the incessant flight to safety from the Eurodollar to the Swiss Franc. The thought just struck me. Is this the beginnings of the entry of the fiercely independent Swiss, whose Cantons are technically states within a State into the embrace of Mother Europe? “One Europe” is possibly coalescing into a reality with the independent holdouts like the Republic of Ireland, and eventually UK and Norway needing the protective embrace of a bigger ship in Mother Europe from the ramifications of the subprime crisis and its ongoing sequel or in Norway’s case, from the oil rush in the thawing Arctic. And if matters play out, Germany will finally get to rule Continental Europe including their arch nemesis, the dogged British, where their predecessors, Hitler’s Nazi Germany failed?
‘For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.’
1 Thessalonians 5:3
The thoughts above were written about a week ago. Since then I have been to Bangkok and back. And of course, the wealth destruction in the equity markets, after a temporary respite has resumed and gold continue its upward thrust. Where is the world heading some of us might want to fathom a guess? But what truly matters is we know that God is Sovereign, and Christ is Whom we must look to and be like. And God commands us to buy gold as in our character as refined by Him. To be able to stand firm upon Christ our rock, much as the world will intensify in its shaking.
‘….God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’
2 Thessalonians 2:13
In June last year, the Lord brought me to start a new series entitled “In Spirit and Truth.” And it has been over a year since. I have in all my imperfections, faithfully wrote as He leads on the thoughts He has placed in my heart. Today, our Lord has clarified for me and possibly for some of you, the significance of this term “In Spirit and Truth.”
“2 Thessalonians 2:13” was the verse that spoke to me as I spent time with the Lord in my room at the Hyatt Erawan. This hotel, much as it takes its namesake from the Erawan Wat, a shrine that many of the non believing world flocks to for divine guidance and intervention, is interestingly where God chooses to lift the veil in my heart a decade back, and continues to be one place where He clarifies and guides me in my journey with Him since.
Knowledge is power, for that is what the world believes in and aspires to. It has its grounding in the disobedience act of Adam and Eve taking a bite of the forbidden fruit of knowledge. Our sins have not just been forgiven by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, but with the resurrected Christ, we are no longer under the bondage of death and the delusion of the devil. What remains then is a willing response on our part to step unto the presence of the Lord our God, for only then, will we receive the faith needed to keep us steady, even as the Lord transforms us, much as the devil will try to claw you back into its fold.
I know all of us who first believed have felt this peace and joy. This sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit who resides in the hearts of believers. And I am sure that we continue to experience this enabling grace whenever we take time to quiet our hearts and be with the Lord. But sadly for many, this is rare for you are rarely with the Lord.
“It takes two” that used to be the opening line in the song that the toothy twosome, Donnie and Marie Osmond used to open their show with. We are not partners with the Lord, but we must be willing to not just come unto His presence to receive the enabling grace of the Holy Spirit, but be willing to believe and live in response. This is the “truth” portion of the term “In Spirit and Truth.” For only in responding will we experience the truth of the Word of God, will we be willing to let go and let Him transform us.
‘And for this strong cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.’
2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
Delusion has been with humanity since the sinful Adam. It is just that the intensity and scale seem to have been ratchet up these past decade. And much as the world wants to believe in the delusions, deep in their hearts is this sense of unease that is now being translated into the lemming like behavior in not just the financial markets, but in the real economy, where businesses are buffeted with changes that are too dynamic for their comfort.
‘Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.’
Hebrews 12:26
Time out from one’s daily routine has always been insightful for me, for it does give one time to be reflective, but more importantly to be still and know the will of our Lord.
'For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work: only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming...'
2 Thessalonians 2:7-8
Let me close by sharing a few observations(previously shared but now expanded upon) that while open to different interpretations, at least for me does point to “bigger things” to come. From delusion on a massive scale, the devil now has moved forth to expand into the arc of lawlessness as it encircles its grip on the world. But it matters not, for God is with us who seek Him with our all.
- A deeper debt quagmire
Extreme austerity measures and strong economic growth are necessary to pull the indebted Western economies out of the debt quagmire. Yet, the political will is not there. And increasingly, it looks like the lost two decades of a Japan like anemic growth is being replicated in the Western world. And as nations move to raise revenue, they are compounding the level of personal debt with countries increasingly looking at casinos and online gaming as a source of revenue. Indeed, a delightful way as the devil will wryly put it, to enslave the masses into a life of servitude.
- Great social divide
Is the UK riots a once off or a harbinger of the manifestation of the destitute moving from despondency to retaliation? The latest Business Week has on its cover, the title "Fascist Russia." Is xenophobia and white supremacy the route that many restless and angry youths will take and be harnessed no better than that of the youths of Nazi Germany? Difference is unlike the past, the web is now a potent and powerful force that has made impotent institutions of stability like the government and the police.
- The Middle East stirs.
The recent bus attack at the Israel/Egypt border portends greater troubles ahead for the Middle East. With its few friends now moving to potential enemies(secular Turkey to Islamic Turkey and dreams of a resurrected Ottoman Empire, with Egypt moving closer to the Islamic brotherhood, and with Jordan recently co-opted into the Gulf States, the latter historically bankrolling past Israel/Arab wars) and worse, an Israel that is morally corrupt and disunited, the days of a Middle East conflagration since the last one, the Yom Kippur war in 1978, seems distinctly nearer. And with the Arab Spring, the Syrians, the Libyans and a whole litany of traditional enemies of Israel would serve to have a diversion of a war to distract and unite their restless populace.
- The devil’s brew
If we believe that the devil is the ruler of our delusory world, it is natural that it would continue to keep the world intoxicated. And crude oil prices though in retreat from the global economic slowdown, is still on the high side. And studies have shown that as a proportion to GDP, crude oil prices are near the critical level beyond it, global economies will enter into recession. Admiral Mullen, the US military chief , when queried by Congress, stated that the US economy was the greatest threat to the nation's well being. Iran and presumably Putin would have cocked their ears, for any conflict in the Middle East will definitely cause oil price to take off from its present high levels, and oil being the life stream of the global economy, will kill off any hopes of the stuttering global economy ever recovering in the short to medium term. And with it, stagflation will rear its ugly head.
Much as I love to postulate and often find myself dangerously moving towards the edge of sinful man defined predictions, what matters is not the future, for only the Lord knows and He is in control. What truly matters is the need for a response from us all, to examine our life till now, and ask ourselves, if God is truly Whom we profess to believe in, is it not time to seek Him with our all? And not the inanimate man made idols that many take to be their refuge, be it yellow gold, or the peckish Swiss franc and our own pallor Singapore dollars?
'If you love Me, keep My commandments.....I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you.'
John 14:15-18
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
(20th Aug 2011)
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