So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom....'
Psalm 90:12
Christmas is always a lullaby day for me, even in my pagan days, for it occurs in the last month of the year, when the vacations take the center-stage, bonuses are awaiting, and the whole atmosphere even in sunny Singapore is in decidedly cozy mode. This year might be a little different for many though, given the general disastrous year the world had, with the economic turmoil picking up where the natural disasters in Sichuan and Myammar left off. It feels like January 2009 has already started and the beginning of another long work year has come early, just like Spring popping up in Winter, due to global warming.
Yet, the year ahead might be different, for there is no more of the dreary office routine to look forward to, for there might not be more of the same for many, as the unemployment rate will pick up speed globally.
'For we are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled.'
Psalm 90:7
Man is made in the likeness of God. It just that in our relentless drive to achieve Satan's delusions, we the clay have forgotten about the Potter.
The newspapers have recently highlighted an increase in sale of Christmas trees, against the general downtrend in most other purchases. Church attendances have picked up decidedly globally and as values of one's material wealth tumbled, there has been a general improvement in human attitudes towards each other.
'Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us.'
Psalm 90:15
Deprivation might be hard on the body, but it is good for the soul, for deprivation strips away the many insular layers that we have unknowingly or unwittingly placed around ourselves, and make it that much more difficult for an enlargement of our hearts, to receive the Lord our God.
'The days of our years are three score years and ten: and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away..'
Psalm 90:10
78 was the figure that pop up in my head recently. It might be the age that ends my time here and heralds the beginning of a life of eternity for me with our Lord. Might be a little reassuring, since I am going for the long overdue colonscopy next Tuesday. A simple procedure if God willing, and if He wills otherwise, then is is adieu till we meet when Christ returns.
Fear of God is a recent experience for me, ie only the past few years, but fear of everything else has been my second skin all my life. What about you?
Fear is a very real specter hanging over the lives of many, as the wealthy takes a dive in their wealth at a faster rate than the famed Tower of Terror in the Disneyland theme park. The average Joe is deep in leverage and the plain Jane will have to make do with plain porridge. Everything has gone to the dogs, and even the dogs have to queue at the soup kitchen for the destitute as was reported in the news on the set-up of a soup kitchen for dogs in Germany.
The streets will be less of a safer place, as many are plunged into despair and crime and xenopobia will be the clarion call for the destitute to cling on to.
The world will get more protectionistic as countries look to protect the inefficiencies of their sunset industries or purely for an excuse to blame someone else for its woes. Hitler rode to power on the bouyancy of a defeated Germany after World War 1, besetted by hyper-inflation and besotted with a false prophet who promised utopia. Is there a Hitler in work in progress somewhere in this world?
'....The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye, and believe the gospel.'
Mark 1:15
It has been more than 2000 years since God sent His son to deliver us all from the bondage of Adam's folly. And like the tides, man has moved from a humble and contrite heart to a prideful and unrepentant one and then back again through the ages. Along the way, like flotsam, some have been left on the shore of salvation, while others just moved on with the flow of the tide, to live a finite life with infinite angst and then to not just lose their bodily shells, but the chance of eternal joy.
'The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all'
Revelation 18:14
This is the low tide of life for many of us in this present day. This is the time for us to now anchor ourselves on the only source of comfort and grace, our Lord Jesus Christ. Words, thoughts, or actions from mortal man like me will never turn a hardened heart to the truth of the gospel. But thankfully, God can and He will, even as you find yourselves in increasingly dire circumstances, you will sense an opening in your humbled heart, that ache for that relationship with a God that will fill the void that has always existed in you, but conveniently shielded by the lures and lusts of the world.
'But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins..'
Mark 1:10
The year 2008 is a year of distribution, not cumulation. Many have practically given away a large part of their treasures on Earth, not by choice but by default.
The year ahead, ie 2009 could be a year where even the bare clothes on your body will be taken away. Yet in the bareness of our lives, would be the beginning of a life of joy and peace, a life where the only certainty is the love of God. And where men will have to acknowledge that indeed, the grace of God is suffice for the day, for there is nothing else that they can cling on to.
'For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth...'
Hebrews 12:6
Let us stop numbering the days before the bleak days are hopefully over for only the Lord knows, but lets learn to number the many blessings that God has provided for all of us, each and every day of our lives.
You might use to have a full stomach and a barn full of treasures, but a barren soul. Now you will have a Spirit filled soul, and what about our stomachs? The Lord will provide and He has provided.
And while some in such difficult economic times are prone to highlight their 'God' given financial blessings, it is less important to number or boast about the comparative material wealth that we have compared to others, but rather, be thankful for the richness of our close and very real relationship with a Sovereign God who has kept in step with us every which way He leads and this must lead us to be willingly used by the Lord to bring others unto His presence, in all humility and love, knowing that truly the Grace of God is suffice for the day.
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
(25th Dec 2008)
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