'Then He remembers the days of old....'
Isaiah 63:11
With time, memories grow dim and our emotions detach from what was and on to something new. What matters to us today, will matter less over time.
But with God, He has never forgotten His love for us. We have saddened Him, we have angered Him, we have ignored Him and for many, plain forgotten Him, but He never forgets us and He remains faithful.
Toufu Lane was the title for one of the local television series in Singapore. It was a nostalgic drawback to the days of old.
We will all grow. Our souls will leave our bodily shell. Where to in yonder??
With the Lord our God in a place of peace and joy, or to the fiery furnace of Satan's eternal damnation.
This is not the time for nostalgia, but for an affirmative step in faith in the direction of the Lord our God.
May the attached story of my father's late friend speak of God's faithfulness rather than of man's unfaithfulness.
Dear….
‘It is right to obey God rather than men’
Acts 5:29
With the recent death of Art Buchwald, the American political satirist, another iconic figure of the 20th century has moved from humor to posthumous. Some of us grew up with the Beatles in the ‘60s, and Bee Gees in the ‘70s. I was more in tuned with the likes of dear Art with his great dry wit and juxtaposed his meanderings with that of the melodic but crisp British wit of the great author, PG Wodehouse, life was ever so complete for me, an avid fan of both.
‘Now consider this, you who forget God…..’
Psalm 50:22
Talking about memory lane, just last week, I happened to take a walk down the old stomping grounds of the formative years of my career, the nascent times when I first graduated from taking pocket monies from my parents, to paying obeisance to my bosses.
Truly, Singapore is transforming. The old ladies that used to line Shenton Way, who had seen better days, will have no chance to mature into grand old dames, for the sound of the wrecking balls beckon. Yet, out of the rubble will soon arise a new panoramic skyline, littered with imposing and aesthetically defining skyscrapers.
‘….O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my day……..’
Psalm 102:24
If buildings have a soul, that might be the clarion call for some sentimental soul to save the markers of their past. But the world needs to move on, for needs are many, wants are insatiable and time and tide waits for no one.
What about us humans??
As I walked down from Shenton Way towards Raffles Place, in the midst of the comparatively spacious human freeway(compared to Central in HK or Shinjuku in Tokyo), the youthful vibrancy and vigor of my fellow journeymen is not lost on one, whose heart might still be wistfully young, but whose creaking joints constantly remind one of one’s pecking order in life’s cycle.
‘….that they did not serve nor worship any god except their own God’
Daniel 3:28
Daniel was blessed to know God in his formative years. He responded faithfully to God’s grace and God blessed him and used him wonderfully to bring about His will all his lifetime.
What about us??
‘For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s’
Philippians 2:21
Like some, I am quite guilty of not spending enough time with my parents. Just last Saturday, at dinner, my father shared with me the following poignant tale.
His old buddy, who used to sow the wild oats with him in his prime, and was a key part of his increasing shrinking pool of living friends, died of a heart attack last week
The friend died the day he was supposed to visit my father at the hospital.
His friend was a lonely man. In his days of plenty, he left house and home for another lady in another country. In his sunset years, he returned, having lost his utility to his mistress, and rejected by his forsaken family, he was left with no option but to stay with his younger brother who was a bachelor.
The younger brother died two months earlier, and my father’s friend was at a very real risk of not having a roof under his head.
In the midst of our troubles, somehow, most of us will be able to see the ever present God better.
Forlorn and alone, my father’s friend, with encouragement from my father, started to go to church two months back. My dad’s reasoning was simple enough, The Pastor and his flock will look after him, will keep him company and give him love.
And my father’s friend had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Was my father’s friend saved?? Did he accept the salvation that God gave freely to all of us??
…if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee, but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off forever’
1 Chronicles 28:9
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. We rest our belief that God wants to save us all. He is Almighty.
‘Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distress’
Psalm 107:13
The fact that my father’s friend embarked at all on this recent journey with God, albeit at a rather late stage in his life, is suffice for us to believe that God is with him.
It is suffice reassurance in time for my father to know that he will meet his friend again, but this time in Heaven.
‘…our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him..’
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11
‘Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed.’
1 Corinthians 15:51
In the normal order of things, city landscapes can be transformed, derelict buildings torn down, and in its place, gleaming new buildings.
For men, at best, when alive, we hang on to the memories of yesteryears. Try as some might, in death, at best, their bodily shell might be embalmed, their glories consigned to the history books, and if there was to be any resurrection of them, it will often be a result of the machinations of a new generation, with selfish intent.
‘..Keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God that ye may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance for your children, after you forever…’
1 Chronicles 28:8
With God, it need not be this way. For eternity is what He gives us.
Question is, do we now live everyday of our lives, allowing God to make us ready, in preparation to live in eternity with Him or do we expend our energies creating what is at best, a flimsy toufu-like temporal existence on earth and setting the stage for our entry into eternal damnation in hell.
‘…who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning?’
Isaiah 33:14
Should not the right choice be to
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with your entire mind and with all your strength…’
Mark 12:30
‘For by grace you are saved through faith , and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God’
Ephesians 2:8-9
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
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