Through the eyes of a child

Psalms 23:1-6

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

I make a point to memorise this psalm everytime I have RK who have to. I’ve always told myself that if a 7 year old kid can do it, so must I. So every two years or so when we come back to the stage where this psalm is taught, I rememorize it and it means heaps to me.

Nothing can be further from the truth when you witness a child recite this with playful innocence. Yesterday, as Nathan leaped about playfully and attempted to memorise the verses, I could picture how God would look after him exactly as he would with any of us as per how the verses pan out.

M.

Attractive isn't always best

Genesis 13:10-12

Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

I learned this yesterday. What is nice before you may not be best for you.

If you look at the example of Lot, he selected the land that he surveyed before him which was well watered. It must have really looked great if the bible described it to look like the garden of the Lord. But it looked, it wasn't. In fact it was also sin-riddled and not good for him.

Attractive as things before us look, never chose anything with the human eyes. Abram may have had the drier piece of land but when the Lord was with him, he lacked nothing and only prospered. In contrast, Lot eventually paid the price for selecting the sexier choice of land.

May the decisions of your life, not by viewing what lies before your eyes. Do it with God's guidance.

M. 

Can you perform without God's help?

Philippians 4:13

I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. 

I learnt this today. If God called you to do something, then you shouldn’t be able to do it without Him. In fact, if you could do it without Him, then it’s really not a God-thing. How very interesting.

This also means God won’t let you use weaknesses as an excuse for not doing what He’s asking you to do. If God is calling you to any task, then He’ll give you everything you need to complete the task. The Holy Spirit will empower you with God's strength, wisdom and everything needed to accomplish your task. At the end of it, you'll realise the super-natural help and boast about God, not yourself.

On another note, it also means that you and I should evaluate what we are doing for God. Is it simple and such a breeze that you don't need God? Maybe it's time to reevaluate and aim for something harder so you can learn to rely on God more.

M.

When God leads, you lack nothing

Nehemiah 9:21
For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.

I'm a very boring person. 

I'm hardly adventurous, and often see no need to find new things to do or experience in life. In fact, if you see my pictures since teenage till today, I probably still sport same form of hairdo, dress sense and still would look about the same size. 

I may have, in my teenage days, toyed with the idea of having an earring, but I've never desired to colour my hair (I do think I've a really enviable shade of brown tinted hair), never desired a tattoo or even bought fashionable clothes that don't seem to shout 'me'. That's why when I bump into people of the past, they often still recognise me because I don't seem to have changed much.

I must say that I've an anti-establishment rebellion streak in me and I'm sure all of us do in some measure of ways, due to our fallen nature. Since young, when everyone was running after the latest fad, I'll spite it. Even in clothing, when foreign brands arrive and everyone goes wild, I'll drop the interest in them like a hot stone. Why bother to follow en-mass? Yet, if myself and millions are trying to look unique, the end result is we all look kinda the same isn't it? 

Look at gangs and folks who rebel by trying to look different; in the end, they still look like a bunch of idiots because everyone is attired in similar looks and the only people they are different from is the ordinary folks who are already making efforts to be different from the other man on the street.  Frankly, originality and being unique is really over-rated. Therefore, I rather just be normal, reject any trends and mute all attempts to try new experiences that don't matter. I prefer to maintain myself to be the person I was when young, because I feel that being steadfast is under-rated. As a bonus, at least people who know me will always know I'm original and never attempted to go outside of who God made me and how I've locked in myself after my teenage quest of self-identity.

Yet, the majority of you don't think like me. I see so much experimentation and attempts to try out new things that could give your self-confidence a boost, or make life more interesting. Call it anything you want and justify all you want, but let's face it, everyone is just doing something to enhance their life and outlook.

I shudder violently when I see individuals elect to colour their hair, wear something different, cut new hairdo's or participate actively in different interest/lifestyles that aren't very typical of them as they grow up. Is there a real need to find new pleasures of life?  It's not about finding the new 'me', there is nothing wrong with the current 'me', nothing boring about being you and remaining static when God loves you the way you are. It's no heinous crime, but it does nothing for you either, apart from a temporary ego boost. Actually, it speaks to me of the lack of self identity and the cry out for something steadfast deep in you. Very much the same as the mid-life crisis faced by aging adults who suddenly change their dressing sense and lifestyle hoping to regain something they felt lost.

Imagine 40 years of living life where you wear the same stuff, live life the way in a routine that God dictates. Nothing experimental that would cause you to walk out of the right or left of your foot. No attempt to live out your youthful days to the max, experience new stuff/activities simply because you don't need to when God leads.

When God leads, the people lack nothing. From the physical, mental, all the way to the emotional and deep rooted identity, nothing is lacking. Importantly, when you are satisfied and have inner peace, you understand with wisdom what to do with the time and resources God had given you.

Call me plain, boring, static and anything negative. I don't need to maximise my life's experiences here on earth, because I wasn't born to do that. This is just a short passage of journey because I'm a stranger on earth who is heaven-bound. 

M.

Stand, Go and Watch.

Habakkuk 2:1

I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

I was just speaking to myself as I walked to work; I really need to get into a place of solace and then a flood of wild thoughts and options of pulling out of life struck me. However, before I went astray with the negative options, how timely it is to be able to read about the need to withdraw like Habakkuk because it reminds me of the correct action to take.

What the Prophet Habakkuk says, is his way of saying; ‘I'm going to get alone with God.’ This is a priority that is above serving. In order to fulfill God’s vision for our lives and ministries, we must continually hear from God. We must believe that hearing from God daily is a requirement for us to live first before we can be poured out to help any others. It is not just an add-on to our list of things to do; it is a necessity for being a loving and effective person. For how to we give out of what we do not possess. 

This is why all the airlines safety videos often state, when the oxygen masks drop, help yourself before you help the children/others around you. As life's situation squeezes all the juice out of myself, the drained core inside needs to withdraw to find its maker so I can refocus from me to God.

Learn to go to a place to tarry before God. It may look like your are eat up precious time, but the wait is immeasurably worth it because you will last much longer than if you relied on yourself.

M.

 

What's in your hand

Exodus 4:2

What is that in your hand?

Many sermons have been shared about this verse. I has a lot of meaning for me because when I look at myself, it challenges me to always commit what I have for God: Time.

I can't play instruments to save my life, I'm not keen to be a missionary or work full time, but I do have time to serve the purposes of God.  Sure, it can also be used for my own personal pleasure and I can do "better" things such as live my own life. But when I stare at the lines on my palms, I know I'm better off giving away the time I am given. 

When God never asks this question, I'm sure he already knows the answer of what we hold deepest to us. So we can learn to surrender and be purposefully transformed.

Yet, I answer this question differently today. I hold in my hand a few lives that are of utmost importance to me. So important they are that I hold tighter than anything I possess. Much like a child who catches a small grasshopper in his hands and goes to show his father, I often bring it to show God that this is what I have in my hands because I want Him to see, acknowledge and bless. 

Time that I possess of this life, I've given. Today I have individuals that I hold tightly in my hands. I commit and let them go in Your presence like Moses did with his rod because what is dead will be made alive.

M.

Hold fast

Deuteronomy 13:4

It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

Life sometimes feels like this to me; I'm a swimmer kept afloat by the life vest around my neck and as I'm tossed about by the waves. I'm unable and yet somehow unwilling to die. So I do what I only can and continue to hang onto the life vest and hope for the waves to calm and for respite to arrive.

In all the must do's of the verse above, what strikes me most is the needs to hold fast to God. Everything else is of obedience and servanthood. However, as we swing back and forth with life's challenges and our emotions sometimes taking precedence over our discipline, if we learn how to hold fast to God, it'll see us through the crest and trough of every wave that buffets us.

As I state this in words, may my heart, mind and soul also absorb it and follow what my head has expressed.

M.

Bad Company

1 Corinthians 15: 33

Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

I stopped in my tracks (in the rain!) when I heard this on my podcast today. Really? I never knew this simple truth existed in the bible.

So I searched it out and there it is! Simple common statement which says it all and I never saw it and I'm amazed to find it in its point blank simplicity.

In my life, I've taken much pains to distance myself from childhood friends and peers who are a lot of fun simply because some chose to live alternative lifestyles or simply enjoy secular enjoyments that I condone. Fun and exciting as they are as companions, I've learned to protect myself and withdraw, even to the extent of cutting friendship ties.

Strong as I think I am, I'm not. No one is. For this is a fact of life and something clearly documented in the bible; bad company corrupts good character. 

M.

Honest standards

Leviticus 19: 35-36

Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin.

I'm very easily annoyed when someone takes stuff from me without informing me, more annoyed if a person takes without even recognising the fault of being dishonest. So imagine how very annoyed I was to find out that someone wore back a pair of slippers that has been given to me and that I had placed in church for common use every Sunday. Moreover, the individually did not even have the decency to return them and many were clueless trying to hunt for it to use.

In many ways, I'm not an easy person to work with and I imagine that I'll be a terrible boss to many. I have exacting standards of what I expect to be done and because I work fast, I expect people to be responsible and to work with an equivalent amounts of finesse. Based on the many I interact with at church, there are few I would ever employ or recommend for a job. For the honest salary that we earn, we need to be accountable for handling great work and setting even higher standards than non-christians. For the lack of salary that christian volunteers volunteer, I expect equally high standards, if not higher, because they serve God!

However, it is tragic when many Christians are often the worst to employ because their attitudes suck. I find it to be a reasonable gauge to look at an individuals attitude at doing any task in church and extrapolating it to how they will do work in the secular. Afterall, it is only a marginal difference of change because it'll take too much effort to have differing standards in different places, unless one has multiple personality disorder. Thus, when I look around at the standards of many in church, I often frown because it's a laid back, rotten attitude that I know speaks of the worst of a person's behavior at the secular place.

Frankly, an honest standard is very lacking in today's working world. Attitudes have gone down such that many just do what they think is their requirement. So many complain that they are overworked, yet, often I find them to be inefficient because they don't work fast or hard at the right moment. Look around in churches and you see people coming late and expecting to leave early. Even those who are serving, no doubt we are all volunteers, put in sloppy standards because they aren't measured by a salary scale.

This guide of honesty was given when the people were in the wilderness, and barter trade was the order of the day. Honesty, sets us apart. When our hands are clean and conscience clear, we become people who are distinguished. People can't help but give glory to God for what we do reflect an exacting standard that most don't possess.

May you live with honest standards. 
M.