Dear…
Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near…..
Isaiah 55:6
British dry wit often leaves me gleeful with mirth. For some, cockles might warm oneś hearts, but as for me, choice words like choice meats often leave me hungry for more. And if anything that provides me with the inclination to be an Anglophile, it is not the Queenś accent snorted through the nose by the typical snouty upper crust English colonial living in his past glories,, but an appreciation of the subtle cut and thrust of the soon to be passe language of the present world, English.
And would I live long enough to master the lingua franca of the revitalized Empire, 普通话?
They will give an account to Him Who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
1 Peter 4:5
Allo, Allo is a British sitcom of the 1980s, with its setting in a French cafe during the Nazi occupation of France in World War 2. Hello is in English, what Bonjour is for the French and Hallo for the Germans, so maybe Allo is a pidgin version of the common greeting on the phone by a French cafe owner working in a German controlled France.
Age must be catching up as the youthful 6 decade is half a year away for me. But nostalgic as it might be such reminiscences, the matters at hand are even more pertinent.
Which is,
- what if the friend you just tried to call is no longer in the present, no longer able to take your call again, or for that matter, in our internet age, your email or whatsapp for he or she has been literally spirited away into the netherworld?
Or
- For that matter, when your soul departs your bodily shell, and you finally decide to make that call to the Lord our God, the one waiting for you is not His wonderful Light, but the cloak of eerie darkness waiting to bring you to a fiery furnace?
How tempted are you to base your significance on your accomplishments? What aspect of Godś character needs to grow in you today?
(Daily Bread Wed Dec 30th 2020)
The thought just struck me. When the next call you get is not a mere attempt to hook up a communication, but an admonishment from the Holy Spirit.. Allo!! A wake up call as to how one has been using the finite and precious life God has given us. Is it about the many worldly accomplishments that the world values that define oneś life or simply a life that seeks after our Perfect God, to be like Christ, imperfect as we are?
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, even their name is forgotten.
Ecclesiastes 9:5
At this point in our life, many of us would have family, friends or even strangers who have since passed on. There is nothing much they can do or we can do for them, for what comes after, for dead is dead, and eternity awaits at the judgment seat of God. Whatever seems important for the present life that often commands their full attention is no longer of relevance.
Is God by His grace giving you that Allo moment? Do pay not just attention to it, but there is a need for a full, continued and committed response, till the day you no longer can respond, for the line on your end is dead, for you have moved on out of the body to meet our Father in Heaven at the judgement seat.
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
22nd Jan 2021
An afterthought : An unanswered call?
Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me, yet not My will, but Yours be done.
Luke 22:42
I had an epiphany moment yesterday when I tuned in to my favorite Taiwan pastor's latest Mandarin sermon. There he was, no longer the lively picture of inspiration bouncing on the pulpit that I was used to until recently,, but rather an invalid sitting on a sofa accompanied by his wife, as he spoke with some difficulty his sermon entitled Breaking out of oneś cocoon. Pastor Samuel Shaw was diagnosed with brain tumour with the likelihood of just a few months to go before he will be taken home to our Lord.
Why did God allow this to happen? Is He not answering the call for healing that many are praying for His faithful servant?
https://youtu.be/li6rk4YbSy4 (Jan 2021 sermon by Pastor Samuel post illness)
https://youtu.be/5LHyOrwZs20( Nov 2020 sermon by Pastor Samuel pre illness)
I am reminded of another faithful servant, Pastor David Collins, who at the prime of his service for our Lord, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He is now home with our Lord. Yet even as the mustard seed dies, many things blossomed. Davidś testimony in the couple of years before he passed on probably made more authentic the faith of many, and in his passing, his parents Paul and Bunty who had already served our Lord for many years, had a new reinvigorated call to serve, and are still serving now in their 80s.
http://dc1604.blogspot.com/ (blog of the late David Collins)
Christ in taking on the form of man, understood our imperfections. Most if not all of us would rather not be crucified at the cross, much as we know that God is Sovereign and His plans are good for us. Christ requested for otherwise but He submitted to Godś will.
Pastor Samuel and the late Pastor David surrendered to the will of God. They did call to our Lord for healing. God did not answer the plea of Pastor David. Would He also not accede to the request for healing for Pastor Samuel?
Physical healing of our temporary shell is desirable. But it is our eternity that truly matters.
As Pastor Samuel shared. It is not easy but he knows that God is bringing him to a new dimension in his journey with Him, and like the caterpillar encapsulated in the cocoon, only in letting go and letting God can he not just break free, but blossom forth into the wonderful child of God that our Father in Heaven has already ordained for him for eternity.
Fear and lack of peace often underlines the lives of most of us. Why?
It is because our focus is on the finite present life. No wonder we are so afraid of not having suffice if we live long enough, and even more afraid when death stalks us and time is truly short.
Pastor Samuel in his sermon just a few weeks before he was diagnosed with the terminal illness proclaimed to his congregation that he was not fearful of death.
When reality hits him not too long after, would his pronouncement be proven to be mere bravado, or much as the imperfect us will struggle. I believe that he has accepted the will of God, because he knows God and God knows him, in their regular conversations.
Death for us the followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the door that brings us to eternity.
Reticent most of us would still be, but if Christ beckons, we will enter through that door, for we know He awaits, for we know Him through our regular and intimate conversations with Him.
