#33 When fear comes(23mar2005)

When your fear cometh as desolation,

And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;

When distress and anguish cometh upon you..'

Proverbs 1:27



Who do you call???





There was the 'big bad wolf' banging at the door and there was the 'small ugly but equally evil troll' hiding under the bridge, but like evil, fear is fear, small or big.

Life unfortunately is not a story book, where we could just closed the page we loathe and it will go away.



Just last night, a little fear quietly creeped into my very blessed family.

The wife did her annual medical and found a small little teeny weeny but still potential problem.

Some gallstones were found and just like crossing the road, where the odds of being hit by a vehicle is low, the risks is small but still there.



Like most in Singapore and Hong Kong, we are blessed to be in that priviledge small segment of society where basic material needs are never really an issue.

One of my prayers and supplication to God the last few months has been, how do we bring about spiritual maturity in our children, where deprivation and fear seems fairly distant, unlike our own past personal experiences in a more materially deprived time.



Man somehow, remembers and draws near to the their Maker, only in times of deprivation and distress.



God answers prayers when asked in His will.

Problem is that we often expect it to be answered in the comfortable manner and mode that we desire.



Fear did dawn on the kid. The ever present nagging mum whom they love to irritate and transform into a raging cow, and yet love, can never be taken for granted, for we are all but a breath away from this temporal world.



God is wonderful. He showed us the love and concern our kids have in them, that is rarely surfaced, in their midst of being over-showered with love by us as parents.

God is even more wonderful, for while little storms like this we will all go through, He never leaves us alone and He will always give us His hand and His love to cling on to while we journey through our fears. In fact, He also prepares and strengthens us(if only we just let Him) for the refinement that He will put us through in our journey with Him.



Sadly, this beautiful and edifying verse below is more oft used as an epitaph for those who cannot used them posthumously rather than be etched in the heart of the living as they live life's sometimes tumultous journey in this sinful and dark world.



'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pasture. He leads me beside quiet waters'

Psalm 23:1-2



Andre, my son, did us proud. He outdid himself in his Chinese exams and got 96 marks. For a boy who is always hovering at the high 70s to low 80s, exasperating his mum who knows that he could do better if he was just better focussed, this 'Hailey Comet result' truly was a measure of God's reassurance and impeccable timing, when the a soul is thirsty.





All things are from, through and to God.



Yet, when trouble strikes, it is often our imperfect traits that will allow fear to rear its ugly head when we go through 'difficult' situations.

Almost to the last, the first human reaction amongst many will be one of inexplicably putting less credence to what the Word of God says below and instead, letting our fertile and fearful imaginations take root.



'For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure'

Philippians 2:13



I know God.

It is not because of who I am, or what I have read. It is because of the experiences of walking with Him the last few years and experiencing His manifold blessings and reassurances through the challenges and joy of life.



This living experience and close walk with God, by His grace, has taught me to learn to will, albeit with some initial difficulties, our human unwillingness to look to Him, to submit to Him and resist the devil in us, to want to do things our own way.





'But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely. And shall be quiet from fear of evil'

Proverbs 1:33





Yet, often for many, when the stark reality of being alone spiritually, when troubles of the world threatens to overwhelm their seemingly resolute soul, why are their cries for help and God's grace remains an unanswered echo into the wilderness



God warns



'..When distress and anguish cometh upon you;

Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer..'



'Because I have called, and ye refused;

I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded

..........



Proverbs 1:27-28



God Blesses



Eng Hieang





Note : My 'madness'

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Someone once asked me, will my family not mind my sharing such personal details of my life. Would not I mind baring my soul to all and sunder.

May these two verses more than just explain my passion, may the Word of God speak to all of us on our calling as believers



'But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds , are much more bold to speak the Word without fear'

Philippians 1:12-14



'..that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that will all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain'

Philippians 1:20-21