Dear…
So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12
A friendś beloved sister just passed away suddenly, after a Christmas lunch.
How frail is indeed the finite human life, much as we often seem to forget, in the midst of our pursuit of the things of the world.
The Russians today proudly proclaimed the commissioning of their hypersonic weapons system, a great achievement in terms of ability to penetrate all present known air defence systems.
A new global power arms race has begun, as the superpowers seek to have dominance over each other, and in the process, having sufficient firepower to destroy our world many times over.
The US stock market is on a bull run, only matched by the winning streak of the Liverpool football team, coached by a God fearing Jurgen Klopp.
News, some attention grabbing for the moment,, some miniscule for many to even notice, life carries on and Father time continues its passage.
For all our days have passed away in Your wrath. We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years. And if by reason of strength they are eighty years. Yet their boast is only labour and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Psalm 90:9-10
The privilege of age with each passing year is the yearning for the past, as one indulges in reminiscence of what was, what could have been and moan on the reality of the present.
Without God, our life is one of chasing after the delusory utopia of what seems to constitute lifeś pinnacle, only to realize that even that provides only temporary happiness, before one needs to climb a higher peak, to try to fill up the continued emptiness in oneś being.
The black clad protesters in Hong Kong crave with increasingly frustration and concomitant violence their five demands. But what comes next even if it is granted?
Is it no small wonder that many a great intellect eventually let their depression succumb to the need to end their convoluted life, for utopia remains elusive.
My days are like a shadow that lengthens. And I wither away like grass
But You O Lord, shall endure forever….
Psalm 102:11-12
Indeed, save for 2 more years, I stand not to far from crossing my 6th decade. With the passage of time, one inadvertently tends to be more sanguine about life, and definitely more cognizance of the fast dissipating sand in the hourglass of oneś life, even as the wear and tear on our physical shell serves to constantly remind us of this truth.
But thanks be to God, it has been a life full of richness by His grace, since the day His Spirit fell upon me when I was 40.
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly you are an epistle of Christ…
2 Corinthians 3:2-3
Economic cycles, just like bushfires in Australia, is a necessary part of the way God ordered His created world.
Bush fires, from what I read, allows the land to regenerate. Economic cycles provide the necessary reset to unfettered euphoria, when greed permeates at the ceiling, and provide a floor for God knows our limits, even as the humbling in an economic downturn is a good sobering experience for the human soul.
But what has changed is the intensity and regularity of both.
Climate change is largely blamed on us irresponsible humans, who since the days of Adam and Eve, no longer seek to be good stewards of the World that God created. We moved from total reliance on God, to seek to rely on our imperfect finite understanding.
Economic cycles are often extended by the desire of politicians to defer the inevitable but healthy corrections to past excesses, and in doing so, we defer and make much bigger the future maelstrom. Will it be a long period of stagnation( like the last 3 lost decades for the long suffering Japanese) or stagflation( as witnessed in the early 80s of high double digit interest rates). Either will cost the world dearly.
Predictions are at best flawed. But to continue to be oblivious to the obvious tinderbox that we are in could be severely damaging to oneś financial well being.
But there is something that is much more important and enduring, in fact for eternity. That is the state of our spiritual well being and where do we stand when it is time to be at the Judgement seat of God?
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
Do join me and many of your brothers and sisters in Christ in using the remaining time well. To build a life that reflects Christ in us. A temple that when its purpose is served, we can proudly depart and be in the loving presence of God our Father, knowing that we have been a good and faithful servant.
Now therefore, O God, strengthen our hands.
Nehemiah 6:9
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
28th Dec 2019
An afterthought - Inflamed (3rd Jan 2020)
The sun shall be turned into darkness. And the moon into blood.
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Joel 2:31
Joel 2:31 was the verse I juxtaposed next to the Facebook posting of a picture showing Sydney bridge with the Sun in blood red, due to the bushfire in New South Wales.
In my haste to put a visual to a biblical prophecy, I did not take time to ask our good Lord if I was being judgmental on the spiritual state of Australia, and more importantly, how should that message be conveyed. True enough, it elicited an understandable response from an upset friend, whose house was not too far from the bushfire.
And it shall come to be pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved…
Joel 2:32
It has been a month since, and a large swathe of Australia is burning, with no end in sight.
This time, I am reminded by our good Lord that there is a need to remind all of His love.
No matter the state of sin one has deteriorated too, God loves remains unchanging.
It is better to point another to the love of God, and His saving grace, rather than to throw self righteous condemnation on their wallowing state.
Today, we need to pray for Australia. That many will repent and call upon the name of our Lord, for only God can bring relief to what is likely to be a long hot summer.
And on inflamed, with the death of Iranś top general, snuffed out by the Americans, the world look increasingly precipitous and could this be the trigger to the next major Middle East war? Pitting Israel against a coalition of her Arab cousins, the last being the Yom Kippur war back in 1973, which triggered the 1st major oil crisis, and eventually global stagflation.
There are however three key differences this time
- The Great Satan(as the Ayatollah of Iran call the USA) is a net oil exporter rather than importer.
- Since the State of Israel was founded in 1948, In all major Middle East wars between Israel(the little Satan, again a termed coined by the Iranians) and the Arab coalition, the last in 1978.
Iran was always on the sideline, being on friendly terms with Israel, until the Iranian revolution in 1979. This time, she could be leading the charge.
- Nuclear weapons can be an option for both protagonists
No comments:
Post a Comment