Kept by God

Mark 10:14

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

Last night was a good night. I had a last minute dinner appointment and after I finished dinner I bumped into JiHeng. He was one of the initial batch of ER's whom I had in living springs and he had left the church after less than a year as the family was switching church.

This was a very pleasant boy to have. Smart and chatty, creating lots of noise with his fellow Raffles schoolmate - YongEn. The day I found out the heartbreaking news of him leaving was the actual day and I was concerned of his well being since many teens who leave church for another may not fit into the new place and may end up not attending church.

The conversation we had was a few brief sentences, and it really warmed my heart to see him and know he's ok. This chance encounter made my day because it speaks of God's covering on him and I'm grateful for lives that are kept.

How often we depart from a place or bid farewell to others and we say a prayer of God's blessing and yet, down the road, things go awry. It often makes me think prayer doesn't do much and can be a depressing thought. But last night, I reveled in the goodness of the moment to know that there are successful prayers and God's goodness in many lives.

God, keep many of the others I no longer see regularly because as children, they belong to you.

M.   

Jesus' coming back

1 Corinthians 15:52

In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

How useful it is to be tested on memory verse and then be thrown in a situation where you have the opportunity to quote the verse! Makes you feel all smart and proud that the memory was not in vain, as the exact word of God could be given, instead of the usual paraphrased gibberish sentences.

I had quite a nice, albeit early, dinner appointment last night and as the conversation veered around the world. We observed that the sunset sky was in a really peculiar shade of orange, blue hue. (I only found out later, that there was also an amazing sighting of rainbow in various locations!) So, as we took in the unusual sunset colours of the sky, I could help but attribute it to my nonsense theory of the end times and end of the world.

This eventually led to the hair-raising topic of what if we are left behind when the rapture happens. It's a terrible thing to happen, but with the world experiencing an unprecedented number of natural disasters, it is but the beginning of the signs. The bible does say, it is only like the start of birth contractions.

Much as we have our regular life and its pursuit of pleasures and dreams to fulfil.  Better stay alert and be ready because Jesus is coming back someday and pretty sooner than we possibly think.

M.

The Lord provides

Genesis 22:14

So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

The JLTA has ended and as the joy simmers on with the campers and commanders alike, I'm grateful for how God's hand of grace is extended throughout the JTT camp I was in-charge of.

It's truly a miracle to behold as God opened the door for us to use the toilets of the NPCC campsite. In addition, for him to provide each of us with a 1.5L bottle of mineral water. I really cannot imagine being stuck in the campsite with no water to shower and to wash our cooking equipment.

Everynight, we had cooling sea breeze as we stood by the beach in worship and services. As we hiked, there was clouds to shade us from the scorching sun that I experienced in the last JTT.

Not that God provided everything to the point of perfection, that will happen someday in Heaven. but when you view the entire trail with simple eyes, just as how we should with our life's journey, it's really amazing how God always provides more than enough comfort to ease us through the uncomfortable moments. He does not need to go that extra mile, but we're blessed that He shows his love by doing small acts that matters significantly.

M.

You fighting or not?

2 Timothy 4:7

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

This is the season of funerals, it seems. The past weeks, there have been many who have passed away. Incidentally, I've been reading the obituary section as of last year because of age. Often I glimpse upon an acquaintances whose loved one passed away.

In many Christian obituaries, I see the quote above and just today as I chanced upon the quote in a young entrepreneur woman's obituary, I asked myself what was the good fight or race that she had?

Someday our life will expire, and while we don't know the exact date and time, I really wonder if many of us will be found faithful to know what we are called for and to endure in the fight of faith. How easy it is to be tired, exhausted or simply exasperated by what life throws at us. Meanwhile, a good reminder to be fighting and not slacking, so that this sentence will be true of our lives should the day it needs to be printed on our own obituary.

M.

complain...complain ...complain

Lamentations 3:38-40

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? Why should the living complain when punished for their sins? Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.

Oh, I really can't stand whining people or people who just live to complain. That is perhaps the key reason why I can detect a Singaporean a mile away when I'm overseas. Ok, so I'm exaggerating, but boy do we whine and complain a lot. 

Nothing seems to satisfy us, and in today's young generation the whining is ever so present and in greater measure than I would be able to tolerate. Over the past few days, I've had a couple of encounters with stressed young adults who openly share their thoughts without recognising that its laced with complains and it really hits me like a blast of unexpected cold wind.

The fact that today's social media is propagating everyone to whine and lament online is not helping. Quite honestly, I don't need to know or am I interested to have the complains posted. Even if I attempt to skip past the posts, it's still a pain to have it out there because so much of the whining are pitiful attempts to be attention seeking or just deluded that they are victimised by what comes through in their life.

We all have choices to make in life. Often, what you encounter now is simply a result of something we have elected to do or a process that God wants us to go about. Even if things aren't a consequence of sin and life seems to hurl lemons at us, I only wish more will learn to take it and also to shut it up. 

If you have an issue with life and you're whining about it, don't go about whining and complaining to the rest of the world. Who amongst us are living in a perfect world without issues? Learn to recognise that those who overcome it on their own often bring much glory to their maker.

Meanwhile, I'm seriously ignoring the self-pity-party whiners who are annoying me to death. Life doesn't suck, you just chose to look at it that way.

M. 

Words of my mouth

Psalms 19:13-14

Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

I abhor vulgarity. Even worst is in situations where Christians compromise their stand and spew what they feel is just a moment to express what everyone around is saying or a release of pent up emotions, it irks me to utter disgust.

This is why I hated the moments in Army and over the past few weekend as I caught up with new enlistees YongEn and Timothy, I couldn't help but emphasise to them the need to stay pure in speech. Almost everyone in the army would be found cursing and swearing, whether they consider themselves Christian or not. 

It doesn't help that today we are exposed to vulgarities more than ever. From a regular movie to free expressions in school,  its everywhere and takes a huge amount of effort to not be influenced.  Sadly, it's not just the guys who will enter army that I'm worried about, the girls too are now spared. Absolute morality is in a decline, the four-letter word and all vular words are not permissible expression of our frustration or regular language which we as Christians are entitled to say. 

Amongst the 8 codes of the Royal Rangers, "clean" is the one I feel most passionate about.

"A royal ranger is clean in body, mind and speech. " This is an aspect of being absolute in our faith, regardless of what the world or people around us say, think or practice.

May the words of this generation of youths and young adults be set-apart and pure.

M.

Walk effortlessly

Job 13:26

"You fasten my feet in shackles; you keep close watch on all my paths by putting marks on the soles of my feet."

I am rather naive when it comes to my corporate career. Much as I have aspirations, dreams and goals, I also do not do enough to advance myself to be like the others in the rat race. How then can I advance like others who put in so much more effort right?

It does not help when the bomb of a massive restructuring was dropped in the midst of the business trip. A-Bomb size, it involved my business category merging with another. With all the talk of restructuring, the reaction for all would be to start the look-out for other opportunities as well as doing what is needed to start grabbing possible life-lines. 

While everyone is trying to figure out what are the details to happen and some are scrambling to secure something. This is when I show my absolute naivety to all at work because I often elect to sit and do nothing. Not because I'm an expert given the fact that it is my fourth restructuring or retrenchment exercise in the last 5-7 years, but the fact that I know that my steps are predestined. 

So, while everyone is waiting in anticipation for greater details, myself included, I'm sitting at work, going about life as per normal and very grateful that all the steps of my path are always set by God.

M.