Lightness of being#49 Children of the Light ( 13 Sep 2014 )
Dear....
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
John 1:8-9
God brings us to different seasons in our journey in His presence, even as He continues to refine and transform us unto Christlikeness.
The silence of the past month from me, has been due to a bit of traveling in China, but also a time of personal reflection. China, a vast land of extremities, unfettered materialism yet dire poverty. For the latter, not just in the physical, but very much in the spiritual. There is an emptiness that is the inevitable consequence of a long repressed and impoverished society that sought to make up for lost opportunities by seeking feverishly the wealth of this finite world, to the neglect of family and values.
And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?
Mark 4:21
"Light," this is the word that our good Lord has subjected me to these past few days. Be it in last Sunday's sermon in Church, a reading from Our Daily Bread, and an impression upon the heart that precedes the former two affirmations.
Interestingly, darkness or rather the creeping temptations of the forces of darkness was what I was more subjected to in the past one week. The evil spirits of lusts, pride and self righteousness were jostling to take centre stage in my heart, now that by the grace of God, the spirit of fear that has hovered over me for the better part of the past two years in this new ministry that God has called me to has been finally dispelled.
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
Romans 13:11-14
"Like Saul (who became the apostle Paul), all Christians have been exposed to God’s mighty light—Jesus opened our spiritual eyes when we were saved (John 1:9-13). And God’s light is at work in our hearts today. When we struggle with sin, fear, or confusion, we can remember what Paul said: “[The Lord’s] light within you produces only what is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:8-9). These inner blessings assure us that God, who began His good work in us, will continue it until His Son returns (Philippians 1:6)."
( from "Our Daily Journey Sun Sep 7, Jennifer Benson Schult)
Followers of Christ are more than mere pretty fireflies that glow in the pitch dark swathe of evil that blankets our fallen world. God will use us as His beacon of hope for the hopeless. A mobile fireplace where the downtrodden can seek solace, where the weak and humbled receives sustenance and shelter from the harshness of Satan's world.
"Lightness of being," this present blog#7 might connote Christian living as one of living without cares or concerns. That is not the life God envisaged for those He called. We are called into the battlefield against the forces of evil. Wounds and bruises we will receive. Downright oppression from the realm of darkness we will be subjected to. But through it all, our burden will be light, because the Spirit of God is within us. And indeed buffeted I have been, but thanks be to God, the grip of evil has no permanent hold upon my countenance.
And down sometimes I might be, but out never, but in fact, always back up even more stridently in His service, for evil cannot take away the victory of the cross.
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:9-10
"Life of the overflow," it is apt my men's small group completed today the 30th and final lesson of this wonderful course "School of the Shepherds." A 30 months journey, time that was well spent amongst men who seek after our Lord, as a community of brothers.
We struggled through not just the need to not doze off from the soothing balms of the half hour video lessons as each of us prepared for the Saturday's discussion from the comforts of our individual abode. But for the past 30 months, each of us wrestled with God, like Jacob, in the nights of our life, when the issues of daily living is brought to bear upon us.
We have committed to repeat the same 30 lessons. Not because we were abject failures in our coursework, nor were we totally way off in our walk with the Lord.
But rather, we want to be even more fully equipped by our Lord, as He uses us to be
the lamp upon which His light will shine forth, we want to be "children of His Light."
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 15:13
That the world will witness the overflow of God's abundance upon our lives, that the wilting world will want to be led to come to Christ our Chief Shepherd, the door upon which all who enter will experience the abundance of God's grace, not in material prosperity alone, but in the inexplicable joy, inner peace and reassured hope granted to all who believe and follow Him.
And with this sharing, it is time to move to a new focus in my journey with our Lord.
"Children of The Light," this will be my new blog series#8( eng-hieang88.blogspot.com).
The days of wavering is over. It is time the watching world must see Christ lived out in us, for the End of Times are indeed nearer than we think.
The Islamic Caliphate chose the color black rather than the standard green that one often associate with the Muslim faith. They have deliberately chose to bring back the cruel practices of the dark days when society were more barbaric. Darkness has indeed taken on an even more ominous tone.
Scotland in UK, Catalonia in Spain, and many more nations within nations are seeking to breakaway from past enforced marriages. Yet while vying for independence, they want to seek the solace of the European Union. And with the Russian bear starting to be overbearing again, her nervous neighbors in the Baltic States and Scandinavia must be feeling the need to be coddled by Mother EU. The reality of One Europe and the anti-Christ is inching towards fulfillment. And what better ground than Continental Europe , a land mass where the worship of self has long displaced its once Christian roots.(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9589732/Mass-rally-in-Venice-to-call-for-independence-from-Italy.html)
Recently, the former President of Israel, Mr Shimon Peres proposed to the Catholic Pope to initiate a new United Nations of religion. For it is his belief that diversity in religions is the cause of the present world's conflicts. If there is only one voice for the world to listen to, on issues of religion, religious based conflicts will have no room to move( http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Israels-Shimon-Peres-Proposes-Creation-of-a-UN-of-Religions-20140904-0082.html).
A man of peace, this Nobel Peace laureate, is also purported in some reported sources to be the father of Israel's nuclear program.
Are we moving towards the notion of one world religion?
God blesses
Eng Hieang
13 Sep 2014
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