Flee! don't turn back

Luke 17:31-33

On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

Mount Merapi, located in the island of Java, erupted a few days ago. On 25 October 2010 the Indonesian government raised the alert for Mount Merapi to its highest level and warned villagers in threatened areas to move to safer ground. People living within a 10 kilometres zone were told to evacuate. The following day, the volcano erupted and people who chose to stay behind were killed. Even a 2-month old baby was found dead.

The current eruptions are intermittent and as I watched the news, volunteers were lamenting how difficult it was to get evacuees to stay in the safe area, because many just wanted to go home to tend to their crops and ensure their houses are safe. Many were apparently going back in the day to their homes and return back to the evacuation centre for the night as refuge. I was really stunned that even the evidence of people being killed by the eruptions, did nothing to make people realise the danger and to treasure their lives even more.

When you read up about Merapi, the information states that it is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia and apart from the large eruptions centuries apart, small eruptions occur every two to three years. Somehow, the villagers who live in it's shadows have gotten so used to the many small eruptions and frequent tremors that they aren't concerned and even immune to the volcanic alerts.

The villagers who live in the vicinity of Merapi only have their farms and lifestock to make a living. Without them, they have nothing to survive on.  But faced with the possibility of death versus a chance to look after the future, they choose the dangerous route to secure something for their future. How silly it may seem because if they should die as they go back into the danger zone, they don't even have a future!

   

What about us? Have we gotten immune to the frequent rumbling of the end times such that we live each day worrying about our day-to-day matters? Are we so engrossed in living life or busy securing our future and doing all we can to achieve our life's aspirations that we neglect to heed the warning signs to stay pure, live blamelessly and be dedicated to the cause of God. 

Just as the warning signs of Mount Merapi were given weeks before its eruption, the same warning signs of Christ coming back has been echoed. The end is definite, the only unsure thing we all have in common is the actual day and time. Meanwhile, make a forced effort to  be found ready for the rapture. The chinese have a phrase to describe us when we refuse to face up to the stark reality until it is too late - 不见棺材不落泪. 

Time to pick up steam in our journey of life. Spend more time to move forward to be ready for rapture.  Mentor, impart, pray, exercise any required spiritual discipline required to put the old self at bay. Move on from the things that bog you down and look ahead to eternity as the end goal of all we do in life.

M. 

Flashback

Proverbs 24:14

Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

Yesterday when I went for my IPPT test, I bumped into a secondary school friend. He recognised me first and as we sat to chat, it dawned upon me that even though we came from the same prestigeous school, the path we took eventually differed resulting in our adult lives paths being so vastly different.

How different? Well, he ended up going to a polytechnic and took on different jobs before his current role of a house-husband! Today, he stays at home to look after his ten month old child, while his wife works to support the family. Gosh!

It is chance meetings like these that provide a really interesting moment to review the past many years and look back at how I was as a kid, student and young adult. Thereafter to see the path taken and evaluate what type of life I'm living now. 

I'm sure many of us didn't plan to be who we are and where we are when we were playful teenagers. Yet, somehow, circumstances and decisions were made to bring us to where we are today. Will we be in a lesser off or better off situation if we had done things differently when we were young? I for one would like to find out, if I had a chance to experience a back to future experience. One can only imagine.

I am glad that the bible presents a future hope to all who make wise decisions. I better remind myself of the need to always stay calm, be less impulsive and choose to be wise.

M. 

Our guide even unto death

Psalms 48:14

God is our God forever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death. 

Having missed one sunday service due to my business trip, attending church yesterday has resulted in me concluding that something's not quite right. A few weeks before, I thought it was just a fleeting feeling due to the fact that my weekends are spent attending two different services from different churches. But as of yesterday, I concluded that the mood in my home church has been really somber and dare I say it, depressing.

No need for me to waste much brains cells to deduce why the change in mood, but this isn't the forum to talk about church issues, so all I can do is trust God to to guide us in how we will evolve. I feel that there's no point talking about it, nor providing more unnecessary actions to help make things better. 

Eventually the dust will settle, just a matter of how many months or years for that to happen. In the meantime, I'm grateful that through it all, God will always be there to guide his church and his people.

M.

"You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my god turns my darkness into light." (Psalms 18:28)

Humble....stay humble

Proverbs 27:1

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

As I went jogging yesterday, it allowed me to think and run through all that I've done for the week and replay past events. One of which was how I needed to guard the words that I speak especially when I'm in my discipleship sessions. As I allowed the Holy Spirit to revisit what I did for the weekend, I honestly admitted the parts that I boasted and didn't focus on God's work or His glory. The uncertainties of tomorrow should be calmed by the reassurance of God's hand in our future, not anchored on stories of my past experiences.

Sometimes, it is inevitable to be carried away and to select interesting aspects to talk about.  So many stories and personal encounters that are to illustrate a point of God's character, often end up to be tainted with personal boasts. Interestingly, I've observe many chinese pastors preaching at the pulpit and they just have so many stories to tell, sometimes, a few of them get so caught up entertaining the congregation that the plot is lost. Not to judge, but I too find myself in such predicaments sometimes as I teach or talk.

How important it is as we serve God in our leadership position to learn to focus on how God will carry us through the days. Not solely rely on our knowledge, competencies and past successes to encourage others.

Humble, stay humble the spirit man in me. May my head also follow suit as I proclaim this to my spirit.

M.

"Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble." (Psalms 28:14)

He will help you

Psalmes 37:5

Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.

There are weeks like this that I live through and as the week comes to an end, I'm amazed at how God has brought me through. It  starts with a horrid feeling on the weekends because of the anticipated new week would bring about major projects or endless business meetings that are full of issues and problems.

This week was a classic example. I was exhausted from 3 days of late nights since last friday, no thanks to church work plus the silly iPad keeping me up. By the time I stepped into Monday, I was physically dead. Tuesday and Wednesday were major meetings with my countries and there was so much uncertainties ahead that preparing for the meeting was mentally draining. 

However, as I trudged on in my best effort, the hours and days passed. Opportunities arouse to end the day early and I pushed myself to get into my jogging routine and managed to sleep well for a night. So, here I am on a friday, ready to get cracking at another weekend of going into the house of God to serve and to worship. It'll be another busy weekend that would drain me more than what my colleagues enjoy on their lazy weekends, but I know I was born with such a purpose and I'll serve with every opportunity I can unless He says otherwise.

I thank God, because in He helps me with everything I do in the workplace and miraculously smooths all the bumpy issues of my work life. Allowing me to be whole, complete and ready to serve Him on weekends. Because of what He does, I can whole-heartedly serve and praise Him.

I'm so looking forward to the weekends now! Praise the Lord.

M.

"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service." (1 timothy 1:12)

Come when invited

Luke 15:15

Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' 

If you know me, I've a mean rebellious streak. I'm never one for traditions and would question rationale and reasons of why things are being done. I guess the years of attending so many church meetings and having returned with nothing has resulted in me being very closed minded when it comes to attending events I perceive have no value to me.   Everything is really about me, my time and myself. 

Therefore, I'm really grateful for God's willingness to not let me be and spiral into a life of self-destruct. Instead, He works in my life through gracious promptings of His intentions for me, often it goes past my hardened, stubborn shell and I nudge myself to submit.

These 2 nights, church re-organised its annual leaders retreat from an overseas camp format into 2 nightly seminars. I've never felt the need to attend the annual retreat so when the invitation for the 2 night seminars was delivered to me via post, I groaned. It did help that the speaker would be Ps Naomi Dowdy, someone esteemed and is really hard to secure.

Somehow, I knew in me that I needed to let go of all my biased thoughts and feeling to attend, in-spite of the nagging feeling of dread. Even in the time as I walked to church, I struggled with the act of obedience. Times like this, being a matured christian really isn't a good thing as we have too much 'baggage' and aren't as hungry for God as new christians.

As the revelations of God spoke to me through the teaching of the word, each sharp and clear, I knew I was predestined to come. God and me needed that simple, but important session. 

Sadly, many of my fellow commanders weren't there and it convicted me that we who serve actively, often forget to return back to God's presence to feed. That's why, we end up serving the ministry in our own competencies and without new revelations of how to break the challenges facing our lives and ministry. Simply because if we can't be bothered to go back to God for new directions and to be renewed at significant milestones, there is little reason why God will want to give us more tasks and increase the works we do for His kingdom based on our old understanding. 

As you read the parable of the wedding banquet in Luke 14, may you and I learn to be sensitive to obediently RSVP to the invitations sent out by our church leaders and God.

M.

"I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13)

Much fruit

John 15:5

He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit

The word "abide," means "to stay in a given place, to maintain unbroken fellowship and communion with another."

As earlier posted, the ANTC gave us a lot of time to reflect on John 15 and allow the Lord to minister to us individually. Personally, it was really physically tiring despite the fact I wasn’t a camper, but every day I somehow found the strength and mental alertness.

In the simple honesty of the word of God, I was challenged to bear much fruit. Not bear some fruit, but much. If you love durians like me and have seen a real durian tree in season, you get really excited to see a tree that is bursting with so many huge, spiky durians. I’ve even witnessed many clusters of durians growing in low level branches that are shorter than my height. What a treat it will be for the owner of the tree when all the fruits are ripe and ready to be sold.

It’s a simple promise. Remain in constant fellowship with God and we will bear much fruit. Much fruit! However, the challenge is always to be single minded and faithful to abide in God. Honestly, it isn’t a very challenging thing to remain, but somehow it’s just so easy to be distracted and unfaithful. No thanks to this corruptible sinful nature in us. However, enough with all the pathetic excuses, with God’s help, nothing is impossible.

M.

"How excellent  is thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." (Pslam 36:7)