Children of The Light#58 St Bernard or Sherpa??(28th July 2018)

Dear…

There was a time in the 1970s when snow was a feast for the eyes for the less travelled me, where one gets to see only on the flickering black and white television screen. And one of my favorite images then was that of the St Bernard with a small cask of brandy hung on its neck. A rescue dog that not just digs out the unfortunate victims of an avalanche in the mountains of Switzerland, but provides warmth through the golden liquid held in the cask.

When our Lord moves our heart, He also moves us out of our comfort zone.

Letting go of the familiar, and not really certain of what lies ahead, is part and parcel of every inflexion point of my walk with our Lord. Wherever He has next placed me for His work, He has always brought me to a position of dependency upon Him, yet has always given me the steadfastness of faith to not just sustain, but be a blessing to others He placed in my path.

This new season that I alluded to in June in my sharing #56. It requires the letting go completely of what has defined my ministry life these past 12 years, then can I forge ahead to what our good Lord has prepared.

I have been a dutiful St Bernard these past 12 years. Not offering alcoholic spirits but pointing  brothers whose hearts have been realigned, to the sanctifying healing love of the Holy Spirit.

And once they are up and running, on I move to the next avalanche to do the same.

There lies this question. Would it not be important to ensure that the survivors of the avalanche walk the correct path going forward to avoid the same pitfalls, and also be guided to be the next rescuer of future avalanche victims?

Our Lord wants me to be more than a St Bernard. To be a Sherpa like Tenzing Norgay who guided Edmund Hillary up Mt Everest.

At this point, Festus shouted, Paul you are insane. Too much study has made you crazy

Acts 26:24

I must confess I do feel a little off. Are these thoughts just shared and the  decisions that I am making as I seek to obey our Lord, truly correct and reflective of the will of our good Lord? Or have I gone off centre with the rather radical actions that I have taken? Yet as I reflect in prayer, I take assurance that I have gone down this path twice over since God moved me from an insipid believer to a determined yet imperfect follower of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ 17 years back. If our heart is right with our Lord, He will always make a wrong right.

A recent incident where the possibility of great spiritual distress has taken away a life of a young saint has left me pondering upon our journey as a follower of Christ. The Christian road is one strewn with many challenges. It is difficult for we no longer deal with issues our way, but Godś way. And we often take on the burdens of many, yet we are finite and imperfect humans as well.

I am also reminded of a giant of our faith, who killed himself at a mature age where God has used him powerfully to minister to ex prisoners. Why did he do that? How can we overcome spiritual weariness?

For we are not fighting flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world….

Ephesians 6:12

I Am With You. A best selling modern inspirational classic(by Father John Woolley, former British hospital chaplain)  just gifted to me by a friend whom I have not met for ages. A book meant to help Christians experience the nearness of God,  in this often difficult journey of faith.

A book our dear Father has given me at this appropriate time. Both to assure me even as I struggle a little in this time of transit. And more importantly, pointing me to my new ministry.

To go into deeper relationships, journey together up the Mt Everest of faith, yet like Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, I have walked the path of faith a little earlier, and know the guiding hands of the Holy Spirit a little better. Mentor I am not, but 过来人 I am.

...put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes….

Ephesians 6:11

And together, we can help each other put on the the armour of God. And stand together in prayer and supplication, so that evil will flee from us, because we have learned to submit to the Lord our God.

To be a follower of Christ, we need to take up the cross. And walk down many paths less travelled. It can be exhausting, yet exhilarating but never overwhelming if we ground ourselves upon the Lord our God. And God knows we need fellow journeymen to encourage and be encouraged in this journey of faith, for our minds are also self deceiving.

And God always affirms if we obey His call. And just this early morning, the thought came to me that it was time to leave Blog#9 Children of The Light, and begin a new series Blog#10 The paths less travelled.

And lo and behold, as I did more than my dutiful duty as a father, cleaning my children’s room late this morning, there staring at me was a book that my daughter was reading The Road Less Travelled by M. Scott Peck ( a 10 million bestseller).

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

What would my new season of ministry life be? I have more than an inkling and it will flesh out as He leads. . But for sure, if it is from our Lord, it will always be wonderfully fruitful.

Do pray for me. God Blesses

Children of The Light#57 Knowing YOU, knowing me(15th July 2018)

Dear…

You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise.

Psalm 139:1-2

The lyrics of this Abba song ¨Knowing me, knowing you,¨ reminisces about the days of joy of a once loving relationship but now no more. And the need to move on.

Is this a reflection of the relationship many of us have with our Lord Jesus Christ?

As I reflect on my daily behavior, in the presence of our Lord, His Spirit often convicts me of the things that I have done wrong. The anger, the impatience, the lusts, the pride, the envy, the judgement, the self righteousness, the fear and a whole litany of actions, thoughts and attitudes that far from reflect Christ in my life.

Psalm 139:1-2 attests to the omnipresent and Sovereign God.

What then can possibly explain our waywardness?

• We do not believe God really exists?
• We believe He exists but thinks He is not omnipotent, so we can hide our sins from Him.
• We believe He is so loving that He will close an eyes to our transgressions or is ready to forgive without expecting any consequences from our sins
• We are just too distracted to even be concerned about His presence.

If it is none of the above, what then can possibly explain our lukewarm relationship to total disregard for our ever present Lord?

Is it because our hearts are self deceiving, and our enemy, the devil is a master of delusion and deceit.

This is a fact, and much as God recognizes the challenges we face, He has also provided us with the solution to overcome them.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:7

The Word of God commands us to

• Seek God always
• In His Word, in prayers, with a thankful heart and in His work

As Hebrews 4:11-12 rightly pointed out. Submission is only possible when we enter the rest of our Lord.

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the Word of God is living and powerful…

Hebrews 4:11-12

This life of diligent submission of our all in the presence of our Lord brings us out of dependence upon our finite and self deceiving understanding, to one of total dependence upon the leading of the Holy Spirit. We literally spit out the sinful fruit of knowledge that Adam and Eve ate in defiance of the will of God. The hold of the devil upon man is already broken on the cross. Yet many of us cannot step out of the wide open prison gates because of the delusionary hold that the devil has on us the freed man. We can only do so when we allow the light of Godś grace and power to shine upon us by coming into His presence.

….because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

1 Timothy 2:13

Most of us live in the natural world much as there is a spiritual realm.

God is Spirit. We know Him not through the natural senses, but through our spirit man.

The communion with the Lord our God can only come from Him. But that only happens if we are willing to seek Him.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

          1 Timothy 4:1

On a similar vein, what we often attribute as emotional behavior are the undue influence of evil spirits at work. Be it anger, pride, envy, lusts and whatever that moves us away from our Lord.

But the devil will never manifest itself to us in its true form, for such delusions work well when we look upon it with our finite understanding, without realizing the machinations of the evil spiritual forces behind it. The devil only manifest itself in times of desperation, when it knows that its lies and deceit no longer works on us, and a more visual unveiling of its grotesqueness may hopefully bring us back to its fold. And let me share a recent experience a week back.

By the grace of God, at 10.30pm every night,  my senses like clockwork, always start to go into drowse mode, and I have no issue having a peaceful uninterrupted sleep.

But last night was one of those rare occasions that I went to bed a mite later at 11.10pm, having engaged my son on the merits and pitfalls of collecting expensive timepieces, a new interest amongst his friends.

Counting sheep is a myth at least for me. But experiencing manifestations of evil presences is a fact I have had the privilege of, though thankfully from the perspective of a fearful man, its few and far in between.

Last night was one that tried as I would, I could not sleep. And in the midst of a keenly awaken mind, in the still of the night when the rest of the family was fast asleep, I sensed a familiar approaching force, that raises the goose pimples and evokes the foreboding of fear.

Not new, as I have experienced it for a continuous period of 2 weeks while serving in the military years back, and once in my previous abode, after sharing the gospel with a committed non Christian. A force that tries to encapsulate oneś physical being, and pure human efforts on our part to push it away is impossible. Our natural voice emits no sound much as one tries But in that straitjacket oppression, much as I know about Christ yet did not really know Him, in my desperation, in calling upon Him with all my might from the heart, the oppression was lifted as the unseen but very real evil presence left me.

Last night the presence was the same. But my response was different.

When the evil one seeks to manifest itself upon the faithful, it is a sign of desperation on its part.

The subtle undue influences that many of us do not associate with sin and evil spiritual  influences be it the spirit of anger, pride, lusts, fear, impatience, greed….works best on us when we look at it as mere emotional characterization, rather than a devilish leading.

But when the devil knows that we have looked beyond its delusions, in its desperation, it will go on a no holds barred attempt to bring us back into its subjugation.

Christ called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness

Matthew 10:1

With hindsight experience, and imperfect as I am, I know I am a child of God, and I have the power to call on the name of Christ to drive out evil spirits. And this I did and the approaching sense of foreboding left me and the peace of Christ returned to me.

Sleep I still could not but instead of the unsettled tossing, I took the time to pray and reflect upon events of the past few weeks. I asked the Lord to show me my imperfections, and His purposes for me, even as He brings me to a new season in my life. A new season that has unsettled the evil one.

And there is no creature hidden from His sight…….

Hebrews 4:13

Indeed God knows us. And in knowing Him. We learn to come to Him always, no matter how compelling it is for our finite self to want to deal with what is immediate, on our own strength and understanding.

God Blesses

Eng Hieang