#155 One world ( 1sep 07)

Sunday is a day of rest, and as my soul wrestles with the desire to take a break and also give all a break from my recently prolific but prayerfully not profligate sharing of whatever the Lord our God places in my heart.

But as the Lord leads, we respond in obedience.

'Yet ye have not known Him, but I know Him, and if I should say, I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you; but I know Him, and keep His saying.....'
John 8:55

We are blessed, through our Lord Jesus Christ to know our Father in Heaven.
Abraham trusted God. He knew God. And he was prepared to leave all and follow Him, to the unseen promised land. God blessed him mightily for his faithfulness.

'Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see My day and he saw it, and was glad'
John 8:56

God is indeed a God of grace. Grace is there without our asking, it is there for us to partake.
Are we prepared to respond in gratitude with a humble and contrite heart? A heart whose sole focus is one of obedient servant-hood. To follow as He leads?

'Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee'
Genesis 12:1

I would have done a double take if this was what the Lord our God was to command me today. Can any of us truly be able to let go and let God. like what Abram did, without any qualms or reticence?

I just did choke, but it was on the sweet that I was sucking. By God's grace, it did not put an end to my finite life and may the thoughts I share today truly be from the Lord our God and that you will respond as He speaks to your heart.

'And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing'
Genesis 12:2

There is that innate desire in most of us to achieve great things. Often, that desire is translated into what society generally values, which is, status, wealth, power and pride of place in the pecking order of life.
To help us along in our avarice, the world is never short of soothsayers and clairvoyants. Difference is most modern practitioners of such pagan mumbo jumbo have now discarded their star crossed gowns and pointed hats, for power suits and the medium is no longer some seedy locations, in the wrong side of town, but rather, the wonderful magic boxes of our generation.

'Thou shalt have no other gods before Me'
Exodus 20:3

As the work week starts tomorrow, those of us who watches the financial news on television regularly, be it out of necessity or otherwise, would be like the world, be on edge as some of us lap up wistfully, the rumored predictive abilities of whichever clairvoyant happened to be lined up on the magic box

Man plans, God directs and truly, only the Lord knows what is ahead.

'Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me......
Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever'
Psalm 131

King Solomon started right with the Lord by seeking Him with all his heart, soul and mind and acknowledging Him in all his ways. God gave him wisdom and great riches.
The world came to Solomon to partake in and literally gawk at his great works and soaked in his wisdom.'

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

As the cliche goes, the rest is history and King Solomon rested on his own laurels and understanding, and brought the ways of the world into his kingdom. He disobeyed the Lord's command and by his own wisdom and understanding, decided to bring peace to Israel by entering into strategic alliances with the enemies of Israel through inter-marriages and along with his foreign brides, came their idols.

'Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations...'
Isaiah 45:20

The Jewish diaspora finally converged in modern day Israel after centuries of dispersion. It was a desire and realization, borne out of desperation, after the tragic events of the Holocaust, of the need for the Jewish people to be unified in spirit and in body.

Events and desires will continue to shape the emotional 'wonderings' of our hearts and the physical migratory wanderings of the unsettled souls that we all are.

'Wealth maketh many friends, but the poor is separated from his neighbour'
Proverbs 19:4

Unlike our forefathers, who moved from a position of weakness(be it in material deprivation/aspiration or political pressures and pogroms), many modern migrants move today, because the globalized world demands their presence.

In the modern Babel or global cities of our day, be it in Hong Kong, Singapore, London, New York, Shanghai or otherwise, the common link that denotes the global citizen would be that professional/entrepreneurial capability and drive, that global adaptability and ability to immerse oneself into the flow of things, in short, to be able to swim upstream with the creme de la creme.

Is there still a place for God in our turbo charged lives, where the best of the breed are often driven by their greed and lustful needs?

'And hast brought forth Thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror;
And has given them this land....a land flowing with milk and honey. And they came in and possessed it, but they obeyed not Thy voice'
Jeremiah 32:20-23

It is not where we are or where we want to be. It is wherever God places us.

God by His grace, has removed the bondage in my and your lives. He has taken us out of our Egypt and will bring us all to the promised land, that one world that we should walked towards, knowing that God is by our side.

As one, we are on this humbling yet edifying journey of refinement and purification, so that when Jesus Christ returns, we are made ready to enter the promised land.

Are we prepared to be not one with the ways of the world and all its sinful desires, but rather, are we prepared to be of one heart, whose sole focus is on the author and finisher of our faith, Lord Jesus Christ.

'And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful'
Colossians 2:15

God Blesses

Eng Hieang