#137 Low hanging fruits (25 may 07)

'Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread..'
Proverbs 20:13

The imperfect understanding in us often cause one to ascribe too much into words and situations.
As I awoke at 5 a.m this morning, our good Lord brought me to Proverbs 20:13. In this time of perceived plenty, what with booming stockmarkets and galloping price increases in real assets, indeed there are many who stay awake till the wee hours of the morning, not just counting their increased worth, but working at full steam, their creative juices in an effort to harvest more.

'It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth'
Proverbs 20:14

The mind is indeed self-deceitful and Satan is the master of deceit. He knows our sinful weaknesses, and while many of us might look in disbelief at the way the many novice mainland Chinese investors are tripping over each other, in the blind pursuit of wealth via the stockmarkets, even the stoic and sensible us will waver that little bit, when prices continue to defy gravity, and be it our innate greed or external pressures, many more will jump onto the bandwagon of illusive dreams.

'Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel'
Proverbs 20:17

Strange as it may seem, out there in Singapore are many who would rather destroy their abode and see it strewn in gravels, for destruction brings wealth. En-bloc is a phenomenon unique to Singapore, where old buildings are torn down to be rebuilt into new and taller birdcaged like skyscrapers, and in the process, many get paid more than the initial worth of their present abode. An offshoot of this massive urban renewal is that besides having more homeless millionaires, the normally docile and introvert Singaporeans are getting to know their neigbours better, but unfortunately, in an expressive and often abusive manner, as opinions and greed levels differ
.
Music calms the beasts in us, but monies draw out the worst in us.

'An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed'
Proverbs 20:22

By the grace of God, I am an accidental participant of this present asset boom. Much as the prideful self in me might want to take some if not all credit for the brilliance of my seemingly impeccable timing, truly, if not for the Lord our God, all my decisions would have been not just imperfect, but really wayoff tangent.

'Both riches and honour comes from You…….'
1 Chronicles 29:12

While grateful for the Lord's material provisions, the true nugget of enlightenment for me was that in all situations that we are placed in, rather than worry about the correctness or outcome of a decision, we should be doing what the Lord would want us to do, that is, to honour Him and to strive to be an example of what Christ-likeness means to the observing world.

'Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and He shall save thee'
Proverbs 20:22

God provides, but are we prepared to take that promise in faith, and instead, focus our very all on doing what would please Him, even if it doesn't seem to address our present dying needs or delirious desire to right a perceived wrong?

'Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?'
Proverbs 20:24

'For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking….and didn't know until the flood came and took them away'
Matthew 24:36-39

A classic mistake most make when investing is to buy very little of a fundamentally sound investment when it is of good value, and in all likelihood, sell it at the first rise in prices, vowing never to buy back unless it drops. Of course, what goes up will rise a lot more and more and more, before the old adage of "must come down" bears fruit, and unless one is in Timbuctoo, the rationally greedy, and logically fearful us will find it hard to resist on not reneging on what we had resolved. What's worse, we tend to buy even more near the pinnacle of greed and of usually of significantly lower quality or near junk.

'The way of man is froward and strange….'
Proverbs 21:8

In this summer of discontent, where less leads to envy and more doesn't mean any less envy, man plans, God directs, and history is replete with examples of the same irrational emotions that ultimately brings one to great heights of greed, pride and fear, and inevitably ends up with a hard landing, where many will be left to mull over what is really temporal in the inevitable winter of disconsolation.

'….when you see all these things, know that it is near…..'
Matthew 24:33

What is obvious, is of no consequence to the oblivious, till the painful realities of their follies bring them near to oblivion.
In the last Asian crisis, some ended as ex-millionaires selling sandwiches on the streets, some lived on the streets, while others fade into the dark corners of life, still bearing the burden of their follies.

What about God?

Like a low lying fruit, the love and blessings of God is not just within reach, but there for our taking, if only we just let Him.
But many of us rather look elsewhere, for the upper reaches of what the world offers, for can the flesh resist the titilating temptations of the devil?

'My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?'
Psalm 22:1

The Israelites, the chosen people of God, were sent into exile and scattered round the world for generations, for their disobedience and sinfulness.
The Holocausts was a major motivating factor for the Jews in 1946 to finally decide to come together as a nation in Israel, instead of being mere wanderers and 'guests' of the many nations that they were dispersed to.
The formation of the nascent nation of Israel was not without challenges, for the Arab armies which was of a much bigger size was ready to crush them at its rudimentary beginnings.

God provided Harry Truman(the modern day equivalent of King Cyrus of Babylon, who had allowed the exiled Israelites to rebuild Judea), then president of United States, whose decision to recognize Israel was essential to its survival as a new nation.
God provided Eddie Jacobsen, average non-descript Kansas native, Jew but close friend of Harry Truman, without whom, the nation of Israel will not have the ears of the President.
God provided Harry Truman in his youth, a Jewish neighbour, for him to develop some empathy for the Jews, where anti-Semitism was a common experience.

God provides for all of us.
Do take His hands, by letting go of Lucifer's.

God Blesses

Eng Hieang