#120 Glasnost ( 4 jan 07)

...can a man bear children?'
Jeremiah 30:6

Wistful thinking or not, but as the world moves towards same sex union, what the law and social mores have classified as taboo not too long ago, is now acceptable today, and maybe science will eventually surmount this new frontier.

Most start the year with new resolutions or at least resolved to fulfill petered out past resolutions. Those who are in the financial business, after they are done rubbing their hands with glee, and having taken a temporary respite from wallowing over the fat bonuses of a good year, now rub the dust off their crystal balls and sit down to make predictions for another hopefully bountiful year.
Demi-gods abound in a bullish period, just like doomsayers are prevalent in a bearish period.

'And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other than can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh..'
Daniel 2:11

Modern gnomes of the financial world are a pretty emboldened lot. They predict. Contrast this to the soothsayers of old; ie the magicians, the astrologers, and the sorcerers of Babylonians times. At least they were partially cognizance of their place in the pecking order ie gods predict, men interpret, when King Nebuchadnezzar commanded them to reveal his dreams.

'...in days to come you will understand this'
Jeremiah 30:24

Much as it might rile some of us, with God, He can choose to let us know what we should know and what we do not know is a mystery of God.
Often, we are asked to trust, obey and follow without the immediate fulfilment of our enquiring mind.

'...I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit.
Which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.....'
Isaiah 48:17

Can the rational(doubting Thomases is the qualifying line), intelligent(for all men are unless you are a primate) and selfish and self deceitful seed of Adam truly let go and follow in faith??

'...for who is he who will devote himself to be close to Me?'
Jeremiah 30:21

Men by choice and character, weighs all decision on the basis of a desire to know what lies ahead. They process all situations on the basis of the benchmark of their finite understanding and sinful desires.

Mikhail Gorbachev was fully cognizance that the lumbering Communists juggernaut will grind to a sad halt, without the injection of a whiff of fresh air in the form of economic restructuring or perestroika. He never expected that 'glasnost,' his policy of openess will lead to a seismic shakeout in the Iron Curtain.

A little furthur back in time, when Myammar was still known as Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace prize winner was born in 1945, a tumultous period when her father, General Aung San was at the forefront of the independence movement from Britain. Her birth was a symbolic prelude to the birth of an independent and modern Burma, after years of British subjucation. But her father never had the chance the see the fulfilment of that dream, for he was assassinated in 1947 and sad to say, the dream still remains an utopia.

'...we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness'
2 Peter 3:13

Men always desire for new beginnings. A clean slate to start all over again, without the mess of the previous. But reality is, brevity is the nature of idealism and dreams become nightmares, as the very sinful nature of men ensured that men determined utopia does not last.


Fidel Castro wanted a new Cuba, in his words, free of the American imperialists. Reality is, he gave up the grubby green dollars of Uncle Sam for hugs of the Russian Bear and ended up taking centrestage for the near fulfilment of the Biblical promise that the world would be destroyed by fire. Thankfully, the Cuban Missile Crisis, when both US and Soviet Union were quite ready to destroy each other and the rest of us with nuclear bombs, never went beyond rhetoric.

'For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly; shall be stubble...'
Malachi 4:1

Today, Bush wanted to bring a new world order to the Mid-East. Reality, is we have plenty of disorder, with more to come.
From the ruins, would a world administered New Babylon emerge??

How do we know the promise of God ??(in the above verse 2 Peter 3:13) is not going to be any different from the fraught idealism of men??

'...o that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments. Then had thy peace been as a river. And thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.....'
Isaiah 48:18-19

Truly, those who trust God and walk with Him daily, receive and experience His daily grace, a life of God given joy and peace. We need not wait for the promise to be fulfilled, for His return, for God is already with us, when you believe.

'Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name, Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us'
Matthew 1:24

The proof is in eating the pudding. To know God, you will have to want to seek Him, let Him and follow Him now.
You can truly start anew by giving a big NYET to the ruler of our sinful world(ie the devil) and a sincere DA(ie Russian for yes) to the Lord our God.

'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet. Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord...'
Malachi 4:5-6


God Blesses

Eng Hieang







'...there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth'
Matthew 13:42