Children of The Light#44 Relationships (15th Aug 2017)

Dear….

The Lord God hath given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning; He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned.

     Isaiah 50:4

How true this has been, my blessed experience with my Father in Heaven. This early dawn, He impressed upon my heart these two words

• Pursuits and Relationships

The dynamic and rarefied air was what struck me on my first foray into Hong Kong, the  bastion of unfettered capitalism back in 1988.

And on every trip since to the Pearl of the Orient, whenever I am in the cab home upon landing in Singapore, I feel a decidedly slowdown in my psyche. Even the buildings in Singapore seems to have that more breathing space between them.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

  Colossians 4:5-6

These past few days in Hong Kong, we were blessed to reconnect with dear friends.

A 3 years absence does provide one with some perspective. Things do seem quieter on the retail front. Not as many Mainland Chinese shoppers with the ubiquitous luggage bags to store their consumer pursuits. Nor I have seen that many  African blacks who used to parlay fake goods on the streets.

But the disparity in wealth seems to be more fully played out in the right to an abode.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD

   Exodus 34:29

By His grace, I do seek our Lord. He has put that desire in my heart, and He has given me the time and the means to do so

Yet, His glory is not fully reflected in me, for I have often erred in my ways. My heart often wandering off elsewhere instead of being fully focussed upon Him.

This trip, God placed me with people who are on the right side of society. Yet these thoughts did cross my heart

• Would material wealth bring the joy and peace that escapes most?
• Is the continued pursuit of more material wealth or whatever the world values no different from that of the fruitless  pursuit of the  mythical gold of El Dorado?

           A self denial that we have a vacuum in our hearts that nothing of the world can

           satisfy.

         

My friend shared about his two other very wealthy friends

• One lost his wife to illness at 60 and now travels every day for business, for there is no one at home, saved for his only son.
• The other has a brood of 3 children, who with their respectives spouses, seem to be overly keen on staking their claim on his wealth.

Can one have a balance? Focus on attaining the treasures of the world, yet giving time for family and other personal relationships?

Yes it is possible for a small minority, but even then, will it truly bring one that indescribable peace and joy that seems to elude all who look to the world to provide.

I have a friend now in her twilight years. Wealthy, with children and grandchildren.

Yet I sense the angst in her. A loneliness with the passing of her husband.

Is it because her children had little time for her or simply as age takes its toll, her many friends have passed on and fewer relationships are a reality for us finite humans?

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

     Genesis 1:27

There is God shaped vacuum in each and everyone of us. Christ died on the cross to allow us to re enter the relationship with God that Adam in his sin has rejected.

While we cannot work for our salvation, God wants us to work on our salvation.

To work on knowing Him, to obey and trust Him, to be like Him.

‘And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days…’

Acts 21:4

‘And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.’

Acts 21:17

In the pursuit of the things of the world, all of us have lost invaluable time in our finite life.

Yet it is never too late if we are willing to now seek God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And indeed, one of the joy of knowing God is there are never strangers amongst His children, wherever and whoever God places us with. And beyond the community, God is always there for us.

God will give us the time if we let Him.

‘But let him who glories glory in this,

That he understands and knows Me.’

Jeremiah 9:24

God blesses

Eng Hieang

15th August 2017