The Paths less traveled#30 Rolodex(2 June 2024)

Dear...

‘....Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.’

1 Chronicles 29:15

With the advent of smartphones, out of our collective usage and memory are now the rarely used printed diaries and calendars, that used to mark part of corporate year end gifts.

What about the ubiquitous Rolodex?

Rolex is still evergreen, but Rolodex is the once epitome of a treasure house of one’s contact list, an invaluable network that ensures that one can get things done in our interconnected world, long before technology came along. 

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed of the things that we have heard, lest we drift away.

                     Hebrews 2:1

A recent learning point I picked up in my online Bible course has this interesting take on the question - “once saved, always saved?”

If one professes to be a believer in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what one does post that, one would never lose the salvation freely granted by God.

The author categorically believes that is true, but does it mean then that as a Christian, one is licensed to live a life of sin, knowing God has forgiven? Does it mean that one can believe in Jesus Christ, but need not live a life like what He has taught and showed by example?

What if there is a fatal misconception on your part? Not on this fact that the gift of salvation is offered to all, if one repents of one’s sins, believes and accepts the salvation offered by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

But rather, one never truly believes much as our mouth and superficial actions might profess otherwise!! And that means the offer of salvation was never accepted by you.

The Bible says, much as we will still be imperfect, a true believer and follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, will have that God given desire  to seek Him, to live right, and not revert back to the old sinful past.

Are you the sheep or the goat that God will separate come judgment day?

What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him?

                     Hebrews 2:6

With age, it is natural that we will have more friends we know who will precede us in departing from their bodily shell. And just this month, two more of my facebook friends have gone home to be with our Lord.

For some only then will they know if God truly exists or is just a mere belief that they never really subscribe fully to in their lives, much as they brand themselves a Christian.. For others, who lived a life seeking after God, they already know God. The question then will be what will God say to them?

In the days of a Rolodex leather bound book, one could just use a pen and cross out a now no longer living and useful contact.

With social media, one could delete a once friend. And if not done so, that once alive friend could do a reincarnated Lazarus and suddenly pop up on our facebook, whatsapp or whatever social media of past linkages and say hi. Of course it’s usually the deceased’s family member who used that social link to connect or simply the AI of the platform deciding that we need to reignite a neglected link.

In Heaven the only connection that is important is the joyful collective worship in the presence of God. Question is, when it is your turn to be deleted from the Rolodex of life, where would you be?

In Heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ, or somewhere less desirable?

For to one’s chagrin, in our eagerness to build an invaluable Rolodex of useful contacts, that serve our worldly desires, we had moved on with life, and the calling ourselves a Christian is just part of the branding we needed, and there was never a desire to open our heart to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that would truly mark us in God’s Rolodex, that we are His children, and not that of the Devil’s

No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law, rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.

Romans 2:29

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God Blesses

Eng Hieang

2 June 2024

An afternote :  MIA

It’s been a while since I felt the inspiration to pen prayerfully these thoughts from our Lord.

The time of absence or missing in action, at least in this platform, was a time of rest, struggle, travel, pondering in the wilderness, but with God always as the focus of my life.

Am I truly ready when God calls me home? Or more like, does God think that I am ready to be called home. The former is within our control by our willingness to seek God and honor Him in our lives. As to the latter, only God knows best.

The Paths less traveled#29 I believe in God (13Jan2023)

 Dear….

The days of our lives are seventy years. And if by reason of strength they are eighty years. Yet their boast is only labor, and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away.

             Psalm 90:10

Life is indeed but one breath away. For the late ex Japanese Prime Minister, Shintaro Abe, it was two gunshots away. With modern technology, the world can witness a life transformed into lifelessness at the blink of an eyelid, from the comforts of our home, or wherever we happen to be.

Ted Turner, the erstwhile ex hubby of the once famous actress Jane Fonda, is also remembered as the chap whose network, CNN brought the full gory of war realtime into our living room or office with the launch of Operation Desert Storm(17 Jan 1991) by the Americans to oust President Saddam Hussain of Iraq.

The USA has come a long way down since that fateful day. Destroyed Iraq twice over. Left their Kurdish allies to fend for themselves. Scooted Afghanistan reminiscence of the flight out of Saigon in the last days of the Vietnam War. And now helping the Russians to destroy Ukraine in an uneven war and looking to do the same for Taiwan with China.

The late Ayatollah Khomeini called the USA the Great Satan!!

All of us are imperfect, for in heeding the devil’s call to eat the forbidden fruit, we have all sinned.

Difference is do we heed and accept the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and let the Holy Spirit transform us back into Christlikeness or do we continue to degenerate into the devilish imps that Satan desires us to be? 

Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message?

Isaiah 28:9

The Gospel of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some have believed, many have not. Belief comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we who believe are called to lay the groundwork. It is God Who brings about the increase.

So there is no need to feel exasperated nor discouraged when one seems to be hitting a wall of unbelievers that is too high to climb.

‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

Isaiah 6:9

Everything at God’s timing. And today I had lunch with an old friend of 20 yrs. This friend of mine, now in his 90s, but still sprightly, surprised me at lunch with his glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ. How is this possible, an atheist whom I have prayed for, though not as often as I should, transformed into an enthusiastic believer of our Lord Jesus Christ?  It seems that at his point of desperate need, at the encouragement of his daughter who is a Christian, he called upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and our good Lord met him at his need without fail. And even in his nightmares where he was oppressed by the evil one, Christ answered his cry for help.

I call on the Lord in my distress, and He answers me.

                Psalm 120:1

My friend says these miraculous experiences have moved him from knowing about Christ to knowing Christ. And his life has never been more peaceful and joyful these past nine decades.

When I looked upon my dear friend, I felt a tinge of sadness, as by virtue of three score and ten, time is finite. Yet with even greater joy knowing that our friendship will now be in eternity in the presence of our God.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

                 Psalm 121:1-2

William Shatner aka Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame is also in his nineties. He finally got to live out the truth of what space was like, an imaginative Universe that he once portrayed so convincingly on television. He was so awe struck by the fragile beauty of our blue planet in the midst of absolute darkness, that he came back with a great sadness having experienced what he said was death as seen in the darkness of the Universe, save for our warm but much abused Mother Earth.

Without God, one can empathize with this sense of haplessness of William Shatner, for what lies beyond Mother Earth or even our last breath is hauntingly depressive.

With God, like my dear friend, the Light of God emanates forth from within his now receptive heart. For with the Light of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is no longer any darkness encapsulating his very being, unlike previously. And satan knew that, hence its desperate attempts to oppress my friend in his nightmares, but to no avail, for my friend now knows Christ will answer his cry for help..

Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.

              Isaiah 55:6

The Word is God, and God is the Word. The truth will set one free when one is willing to come to the presence of our Lord with an open heart, and as we immersed in His Word, the once doubting us will move to beyond doubt, that there is a Divine Living God, always in our presence, it just we never wanted to pay attention.

My friend finally did so in his nineties, much as he himself acknowledges that he always believed that there was a Divine being watching his back all his life. But the difference is now he knows truly He is our Lord Jesus Christ, and he submits to His Sovereignty.

God Blesses

Eng Hieang

13 Jan 2023

An afterthought : Hits and misses

It has been close to 22 years since the Spirit of our good Lord fell upon me one early morning in the Hyatt Erawan Hotel in Bangkok. And imperfect I am still, as we all will be as our perfect God mold us till the day Christ returns, or when He decides it is time to take us home.

Yet in all my determination and diligence to point people God has placed in my path unto His presence, till now I have never been the one leading a transformed soul in saying the sinner’s prayer, much as I might have had the privilege to journey with them.

And in the same vein, with clients who became good friends, notwithstanding the usual 20-25 years age gap. I count myself blessed to journey with them closely, but it always saddens me when they pass on without accepting the saving grace of our loving God. 

Today, our good Lord allowed me to experience the joy of witnessing a transformed soul and my prayer is not about the conclusion, but a continued willingness to trust and obey, and indeed we plant, it is God Who brings about the increase.

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The Paths less traveled#28 Collective Pain(16 Oct 2022)

Dear…

O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 106:1

Stagflation, the latest catchword of present times, yet a malaise only those of a good vintage like myself might recollect albeit briefly, for we were gangling teens when it happened in the late 70s/early 80s. Most I suspect will remember better the late US President Ronald Reagan Strategic Defence Initiative(SDI) coined the Star Wars concept of defence against the Russian bear, given that Star Wars the movies was the trend of our generation then.

Stagflation, a time of limpid economic growth cum rapidly rising cost of living. A double whammy which was only brought to heel by the late US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, hammering it down with a double digit increase in interest rates. Some might recall US rates were in their 20s, while Singapore was in her low teens. Not forgetting Aussie and Kiwi interest rates were in the high 20s and the once mighty British pound devalued.

Seems like almost a strange world that most never imagined possible. Welcome to that possibility in the foreseeable future. And since this sharing was penned back in July 2022 and left in abeyance while I wait upon our Lord, PM Truss has thrust the once sick man of Europe, Pax Brittanica into the forefront again of the troubles to come. A world where risk is no longer one of financial institutions, but of countries.

For man also does not know his time. Like fish taken in a cruel net. Like birds caught in a snare. 

So the sons of men are snared in an evil time. When it falls suddenly upon them.

                Ecclesiastes 9:12

What about stagnation? Stagnant waters most in Singapore are getting to be more familiar with, for stagnant waters lead to the breeding of the dreaded Aedes mosquito which has this year, set an impressive rise in the number of people infected with dengue fever by its bite.

Dengue from recent experience is not the most pleasant stranger to form an acquaintance with. The manifestations are very uncomfortable and potential life threatening.

Is there a parallel to be drawn with regards to the state of one’s spiritual growth?

Is your spiritual life vibrant just like clear moving water or stagnant, as still as an inviting pool of water that beckons the Aedes mosquito to come breed its army of denizens to be sent out to infect us poor souls?

A life lived with knowing about Christ but not following nor being willing to be disciplined by the indwelling Holy Spirit is an open invitation to the devil to come breed in us. God wants to shake us out of our self induced stupor, before we wander off too far, and be left wondering, why did we not fully grasp the loving Hands of the Lord our God, when we had the opportunity??

The Word once more indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is, created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain(Hebrews 12:27)

An afternote :  Adrift

And they said, That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will everyone obey the dictate of his evil heart.

Jeremiahs 18:12

Our good Lord just impressed upon my heart, success is not measured by worldly standards, but by one’s obedience to His leading. As I crossed 61, there are moments when I ponder, could I have done better in life, both in the ways of the world, and more importantly, in my endeavours to point and bring people to the Lord our God?

Much as I have had the privilege of pointing many to Christ, there was never closure if one defines closure as praying the sinners pray with the once non believer to mark his or her crossing into the Kingdom of God

I have been blessed to journey with many believers, to encourage and be encouraged. Yet, it seems not all stay determined in their focus on the Lord our God, and some do drop off by the wayside. Have I failed in my shepherding, and worse, by my imperfection was I responsible for leading them away from the Lord our God?

Have I in recent years, lost the vigour and fervency that marked my journey with our Lord since His Spirit fell upon me back in Bangkok when I was 40?  Have I gone adrift like a boat without its sail? Will many of us find ourselves increasingly directionless in a world that will become extremely difficult and unpredictable for the worse.

As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You…’

Jeremiah 17:16

God looks for our obedience, He is responsible for the conclusion. 

Unburdening oneself from setting KPI(as in the ways of the world) does not mean one becomes irresponsible or irrelevant.  But rather, a recognition that God is Sovereign, and our focus should be on what we can and should do - to seek Him with our all and to love our neighbours as much as ourselves. This in itself is not easy, for God knows we are imperfect, and through trials and seemingly failures, He refines us, and transforms us to truly be totally dependent upon Him and not our own understanding. To spit out the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve partook in resulting in all our present griefs.

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever.

Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

                        Psalm 138:8

Happy are the people who are in such a state. Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!

      Psalm 144:15

坚持下去。靠着主耶稣，我们就做得到

The Paths less travelled#27 Live, not leave the Living Word(4th May 2022)

Dear…

There is no healing of thy bruise, thy wound is grievous……..

              Nahum 3:17

As I walked down Bt Timah Hill, I felt a disconnect between my right big toe and the rest of the foot. Thankfully, albeit with some pain, I managed to make my way down and walked the 6 km home. It has been almost 6 weeks and till these past couple of days, the pain from the inflamed tendon and possibly metatarsalgia never seems to heal.

But now with the enforced near static immobility imposed upon me by the need to stay within my quarantine room to sit out the covid19 positive me, my long suffering disjointed toe seemed to have finally returned to the fold.

Something to be thankful for and indeed good does come out of every situation, just like no tourists for two covid19 years allowed the once pristine beaches of Thailand to be restored.

Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria…..thy people are scattered upon the mountains and no man gathered them.

              Nahum 3:18

What a strange past few months. God speaks to us through others if we seem tone deaf like in my case.  A non believer friend who had the privilege to witness first hand my health woes of the past one month succinctly put it, God wants my attention. 

In two years of almost daily walking, I never had any real blisters till recently. That painful mark of overuse of the foot did not deter me from making my weekly jaunt up Bt Timah Hill. And that was what led to the inflamed tendon and long layoff from walking. But never to be daunted, if one cannot walk, one could swim, and with all the fervency of an ex corporate warrior, I intensified my daily swim, and it was going good till an unprecedented case of diarrhoea derailed that momentum for a good 8 days. Upon recovery, I figured that though my toe was still a little bit off, I should be able to start walking again, but lo and behold, the covid19 virus decided to make my body its home. And here I am, totally no room for exercise or even to just move around, stuck in my little cave. 

Cornered, yet positively a time of solitude, away from the family, yet a time where one can truly learn to be still and be in the presence of the Lord our God.

…that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God…..

        1 Peter 2:9-10

It has been a couple of months since my litany of physical ills. I have in the main recovered from covid19, yet it has never fully left me. I still encounter days of fatigue, and just a couple of weeks back, though not dire, it was a little disconcerting when my heart rate dropped to 45 for 3 days, and it was disorientating and uncomfortable.

I am reminded that we are but a breath, or more like a heartbeat away from eternity

Is our good Lord giving me a message??

https://youtu.be/veH5ADDCQSo

(watch sermon by Pastor Samuel “Put your trust in God’s Word)

This was the sermon delivered back in 2018 by the late Pastor Samuel Shaw of the Banner Church in Tai Chung, Taiwan.

Late because he has just passed on at age 63 from a rare brain disease.

A few years back, I chanced upon Pastor Samuel in my search for a good Mandarin Church where I could learn my Mandarin in obedience to the Word that our good Lord had given me many years back.

It is with sadness to see him go, yet with joy that he is with our Lord, and the ground that he has ploughed will be used by our Lord to bring forth a fruitful harvest.

https://youtu.be/UsP2vQ9ADqQ

(watch sermon April 2022, remembering Pastor Samuel)

Indeed our good Lord has a message for me, for you.  And it was to no longer feel overwhelmed by my circumstances and move forth His way, holding on to the Word that He has given me back in 2011, a call which I have answered these past 11 years yet have often struggled with.

Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain. And washed my hands in innocence. For all day long I have been plagued. And chastened every morning.

         Psalm 73:13-14

Believing and following the call of God is a commitment to a time of discipleship. And like all training, it is a transformative period. And it will be daunting, for the old in us must die, and the new can grow forth. And it is not easy, for in my times of weakness, I look back longingly at the days of bondage in Egypt and would it be great to leave the call of God behind and go live a life of seeming ease without the burden of the cross of following Him?

It was too painful for me. Until I went into the sanctuary of God……

Psalm 73:17

Only by clinging on to God, to live out and not leave His Word, will we be able to overcome and be the child He wants us to be.

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like an eagle, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

              Isaiah 40:31

Like Pastor Samuel, he was always thankful no matter his circumstances. It was never easy, but he clung on to and sought to live out the Word of God, for God is the Word. And like Pastor Samuel, God will decide when it is time for us to be taken home, for only He knows when we are ready for eternity with Him.

We have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, we have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:7

God Blesses

Eng Hieang

An afterthought : Leave it to our Living God

God knows our limits. But He will still allow us to struggle in the mire of our own understanding, and at His timing, His graceful outstretched hands will be finally grasped by us, a surrendered soul that stops trying to understand the why of our circumstances, and instead, just cling on to Him.

Affirmation from our loving Father is immediate, and often we ask ourselves, how silly of us to take such a long time before we take the step of faith. Yet the imperfect us will continue to wrestle with our understanding of the next challenge that comes our way. But growth in our faith is not about no struggle, for we are all imperfect. But about being quicker to grasp the loving hands of our omnipresent Father than before.

But it is good for me to draw near to God.I have put my trust in the Lord God. That I may declare all Your works.

Psalm 73:28

The Paths less traveled#26 What lies yonder(25th Feb 2021)

 Dear…

There is no remembrance of men of old and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

     Ecclesiastes 1:11

Come 2024, the embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin, founding father of the USSR(United Soviet Socialist Republic), present day trimmed down Russia would be a 100 years from his death.

A UNESCO site, where his body lies in the Red Square, facing the Kremlin Wall. The communist do have a god after all!! But beyond the body, where is Comrade Lenin?

Would Chairman Mao, the other prominent anti god of old know, even as his body lies embalmed in the 毛主席纪念堂(Chairman Mao Memorial Hall) sited in the middle of TianAnMen Square, Beijing.

Would the soul of Lenin be having a bipartisan summit with that of comrade Mao, even as President Putin got together with President Xi in the present, as they tete a tete as to how to deal with the Great Satan, America.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten.

             Ecclesiastes 9:5

Some names might take a little longer to forget, especially when their bodily shell is kept from degenerating into dust, and instead placed in a heavy traffic area.

But dead is dead, and Lenin and Mao will not be back, short of being cloned. And for all their efforts and wiles in many battles for supremacy, the time at the pedestal is but finite, and fraught with uncertainty and troubled hearts.

As the year 2022 begins, many of us will again be mired with the need to achieve a good year, and usually that will mean human defined measurements of success. Some will continue to be caught in the quagmire of life of the previous year, yet others are not even sure what the year ahead will mean for them.

He who trusts in his riches will fall. But the righteous will flourish like foliage

            Proverbs 11:28

2021 has been a challenging year for many. It has been for me, and I truly felt like an onion being stripped layer by layer. Yet, like the onion, shorn of its dull outer layers of skin, lies a beautiful sheen on its purplish texture.

In the midst of our troubles, we often desire a conclusion our way, but God wants our obedience and in clinging on to Him, He transforms us unto His likeness

And what lies yonder matters less, for what truly matters is God is with us

…but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. 

And hope does not put us to shame, because Godś love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

                       Romans 5:2-5

God Blesses

Eng Hieang

25 Feb 2022

An afterthought : Comfort, Complacency, Carnality, Covid

Gideon said to Him, O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles …..

               Judges 6:13

Many famous artists go through a metamorphosis in their life. From a prodigal but still raw unfettered talent. Some blessed to be recognized and taken under the wings of the resource rich, many left to live a pauper life while they struggled. And with age and trials of life, the quality of their work hits a creative peak, but soon in the twilight of their years, experience could not replace once nimble hands, and the best of their creative works are past.

Is that not similar to the spiritual life of many of us? God has put in each and everyone of us a desire to seek to close a vacuum in our life. It is often in the midst of our troubled circumstances that we become very cognizant of His omnipresence, and more importantly are willing to hold His outstretched Hands. And indeed it is often comfortable, so comfortable that in the midst of His grace upon our lives, His provisions replace Him as our Provider. 

Complacency sets in and like King David, a man after Godś heart, we will degenerate into carnality.

So is that why God did not give Gideon the miracle of instant gratification as he had hoped and asked for, when the Angel first approached Gideon in Judges 6:13.

Instead of waving His magic wand, we are asked to go fix it, but God will be with us!!

Some trust in char iots, and some in horses. But we will remember the name of the Lord our God…..Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call.

       Psalm 20:7,9

And with these closing thoughts, often lies this question, how do I know God???

• The Word is God, and God is the Word

Even as you read this, if the words are truly from our Lord, He will speak to you. And indeed, time with the Bible is not an intellectual exercise, but an intimate time of knowing the omnipresent God.

• A thankful heart regardless of one’s circumstances.

Happiness comes when we get what we desire. Joy is deeper because we will experience the grace of God in the mire of our lives. A thankful heart allows us to look beyond the yonder of our present difficult circumstances, and see with all clarity the many markers of the reassurance of God, even as He allows us time in the refiner's fire.

• To seek to do HIs work, is to seek to be like Christ

We get to know a person better when we seek to emulate Him. God is love, and if we seek to love Him and love others, we will truly know Who God is, and know Him, for He is love

Covid was the 4th C added as I closed these thoughts. Covid because I have just contributed to helping Singapore top the number of cases per 100,000 people globally. It is an experience I rather not have, but such experiences gives one a better understanding of the effect Covid has on many. And yet, God in all His goodness and grace, has allowed me to experience Covid with relatively mild symptoms. And when one is in quarantine, time alone allows that precious moment to learn to be still, and be in the presence of God.