#171 Pulp fiction (20Jan08)

….should a man full of talk be justified?'
Job 11:2

The pulp that most of our kids are familiar with would be the leftover orange fibre that some smart marketers put into the fresh orange juice that they sell to us all, with the spin that fibre is healthy.
Crushed into a pulp might be too early to describe the present state of the financial markets and for now, the phrase might be better literally personified by the dry and sad looking sugar cane that has just gone through the 'squeeze machine' for want of a better name, just to extract the refreshing juice that many partake in, in our hawker centres.

Not too sure who first coined the term 'Pulp fiction' but I guess semantics wise, it is more palatable than to call it 'trash.' The upper crust practitioners of the Queen's English would prefer not to call a spade a spade but rather cage a fact without the flak.

'Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?'
Luke 24:26

Being footloose, occasionally with one's language helps me to keep sane, so do forgive me for taking the liberty of doing some convoluted gymnastics with the English verbatim, just a few sentences ago.
On a more serious footing, I am truly greatly for your forbearance in having endured the years of verbal assault(in the written form) from me, and by now most would have realized that I am no Barbara Cartland(the Grand Dame of lovelorn fiction), for while the word "love" more than sprinkles my sharing, there is nothing romantic nor lustful enough to spice or heat up the pages.

'The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the Word of our God shall stand for ever'
Isaiah 40:8

The love I shared about is about our God. For God is love. About His continued grace and faithfulness, His desire that all would come into His presence and partake in a relationship with Him, through His Son Lord Jesus Christ.

'I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live'
Psalms 116:1-2

Maslow in his secular theory, "Maslow's Hiearchy of Needs" correctly observed the general behaviour of most normal human beings. That is, our needs or seems more like desire move up the pyramid as the basic levels are attained. Basic or more like carnal needs of food, safety, esteem might be of primary importance to the deprived masses, but physical lusts still dominate the upper echelons of society but they take on an air of seemingly less importance or maybe down to the core it still exists in its raw form, but now is packaged differently. According to Maslow, at the upper tier of his needs pyramid, men seek for self-actualization.

In its context of the world, self actualization is usually clothed by what the world values, "power, status, recognition, predictive ability….'
But there is also a spiritual hunger that exists not only in those who have reached the apex of society(or Maslow's pyramid) but in all of us, be it the desperately downtrodden, relentlessly upwardly ambitious, the smugly and smirkly ensconced, the nonchalant stupified or the plain confused.

'…But that God would speak and open His lips against thee…'
Job 11:5

Out of context it might be, but this is not the first time that many writers of populists books(not too sure if some stock analysts' reports could slip into this category) have slanted facts and deliberately confused fiction with reality, to pander to the fertile and sinful hunger of the easily swayed.
To borrow the words of Zophar the Naamathite, who was busy verbally admonishing poor Job, who was already in a woeful state, in my moments of persistent weakness in faith, which thankfully occur a tad more than a blue moon, I do wish that God will just appear and speak to you!! Nothing wakens a person up better than a full sight and sound encounter!!

'….but the thunder of His power who can understand?'
Job 26:14

God often speaks to us in more mellow ways. Through the heart, by His Words, by the confluence of coincidental events, through people He placed in our lives, when we spend time in prayers in the stillness of our hearts, by the love we show in the work that we respond to as He leads.
God indeed speaks. But we tend to hear better when we are in dire straits of our own making. For when stripped of the distractions of the sinful world, clinging on to the possibility that God really is there is the straw that many will grab, more out of desperation than faith. But God remains faithful.

Pescetarian is a new word I learnt this morning, when I read an interview conducted with an aethestic doctor who says she is a pescetarian. For a moment, I thought that it must be some new fangled version of a lifestyle religion, for the good doctor also meditates. According to some truer than blue defenders of the religion of healthy living, not eating the flesh of animals other than certain types of seafood does not make a pescetarian a vegetarian, as the true bred greenies will vehemently defend their breed against these pretenders to their throne of healthy living. But who am I, a cross between the carnivore and the herbivore to dare make a value judgement on who is right?

'Thou will show me the path of Thy life; in Thy presence is fulness of joy, at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore'
Psalms 16:11

My prodigious churning week in week out of my experience with the Lord our God prayerfully does not place me in the much revered or more likely much reviled but definitely financially profitable realm of the pulp fiction writers. Unlike the less than ethical practice of using ghost writers to keep the factory of prose humming 24/7 to feed the hungry masses, my only claim to a collaborative effort is that the Lord leads, and I pen in faithful obedience.
God is a reality in our lives. But it is not like the reality shows that many feed upon today, where we observed real characters, who could be living out a different and false persona just for the reel.
God is unchanging, He remains faithful even when we are unfaithful.

'But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Thy works'
Psalms 73:28

Even as the gyrations of financial markets eventually will settle down albeit at much lower levels, the lives of many will not remain unscathed, for fear is a bedfellow of greed, and losses is not an exact symetery of profits. In pain, there is gain. To lose literally your pants in the next few weeks of momentum driven panic is not implausible, but difficult and cruel as it might seem, what can ever be exchanged for the salvation of our soul? Treasures on Earth some might have to give up, but to have the assurance of eternity in Heaven is priceless.

'The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low, and He helped me'
Psalms 116:6

To know God is to want to draw near to Him always. No one can ever fully convince you with words nor their testimonies. For joy and peace from the Lord is indescriable and beyond human comprehension.
But you will have to want to come into His presence, with a contrite and humble heart.. It is a process, for God wants you to seek and obey Him willingly.

'Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near'
Isaiah 55:6

Do ponder upon Isaiah 55:6 if you are still dithering. But as for me

'I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living'
Psalms 116:9

'I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people'
Psalms 116:14


God Blesses

Eng Hieang