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.
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.
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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