'And to whom He sware he that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not?
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.'
Hebrews 3:18-19
It is probably due to the onset of age, but lately I have some strange ailments. Ever since my trip back from the States, my left wrist has never been the same, and despite a couple of useful but excruciating trips to a very good traditional Chinese medical practitioner, the pain is stil there, albeit a mite less. But it has not impacted my ability to pound the computer like now.
A stranger ailment is this allergy I seem to have that manifest itself in the evenings when I get home, after my shower. My body starts to heat up a little, strangely warm but without the inner peace associated with our Lord, and the fore of my hands and the sole of my feet starts to itch and feel leathery. And lo and behold, a smattering of mosquito like bumps start to pop by in areas of the anatomy usually best shielded from the public view. Popping an allergy pill will take care of the problem fairly quickly and recently, the doctor put me on a two weeks tablet course, supposedly a reset program in geek terms, to reboot my bodily operating system, but sad to say, it did not work.
'Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit….'
Galatians 5:25
The story of Job was the first thought that came to my mind, where the good man was subjected to great spiritual distress engineered by the devil, with the consent of God. And in the midst his sufferings, Job did dither, but never allowed his natural self doubt to change his faith in the Sovereign Lord. And it did end in a blessed ending, for God more than blessed Job.
Since the time I truly seek to know the Lord, I did have a string of not strange but less common ailments like hernia and shingles, but rather than think of one as being in the process of being martyred, there are indeed lessons that the Lord is showing me and all of us as we go through the process of refinement in His likeness.
The Apostle Paul had his thorn in the flesh, and while he never elaborated upon it, nor did he pretend to wallow happily in it, Paul truly understood that it is the will of God, and that it ensured that he truly remained grounded upon the Lord our Provider, and not be corrupted by the many blessings and miracles that God has worked in his life and through him.
The carnal man in all of us often ensured that we will not move in step with the Spirit, and the Lord knows, understands and will ensure that we will keep in step as led by the Spirit
It is often with pain, that we will gain greater insight of the Lord's grace and not be tainted by our own imperfections.
And like Paul, whose passion for God grew in intensity with the many challenges in his life, vexed sometimes we might be, but we are never crushed. For even in my own litany of incidents, from sliding down gracefully on an oil slick(and possibly covered with cobra saliva, for they did find a cobra near the same spot the day after), to my ex little midget of a car kissing no furthur than the side of a hugh bendy bus and not forgetting the affirmative twin implosions of my home glass panels, God never took me out of such incidents, but He always was there to shield me. And in all instances, there were indeed lessons of character refinement to be learned for the imperfect me.
And so, much as I wish that I need not have to suffer this truly regular painful time with the TCM, where one yelps louder than a wet puppy nor do I like to go through this seemingly never ending but regular allergic manifestation(sort of reminded me of the time 27 years back, when I was pressed to immobility by some unseen but eerie force, every nite in my bunk back in the army for 3 weeks continuosly), and like those nights of fear, being the only guy in a bunk of 6 to experience what some called our nerves affecting our blood flow and nothing more( would sure like these cynics to join me in this), our Lord Jesus Christ was the one and only source of hope I could cry out aloud in my heart, to save me, for not a squeak of sound could come from my vocals much as I tried. And Christ did save me faithfully, for with my appeal for help, the force did with clockwork regularity left me, and to think that I did not know God that well then nor do I remember Him much after.
'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.'
Hebrews 4:16
But not all who are in pain or distress will turn to God. This morning, in between traffic lights, I read on the email a friend sent me, a suicide note by a promising young man. In it, he indicated that he had a great life, materially and family wise. Yet, he had an emotional burdensome past few years. He has also admitted doing some silly and hurtful things. His belief is that all religions are a façade, and ending his life is probably the end and be all. God in his mind, does not exists.
'We are burdened beyond measure,……so that we despaired even of life'
2 Corinthians 1:8
An apt verse to describe the frame of reference swirling through a confused mind like this man. God is very real, much as many like this man might think otherwise. Much as I might like to claim credit for this almost magical ability to pick the right verse for the right situation, reality is, it the our Lord Who brought me to this verse and all prescient verses in my past journals with Him.
2 Corinthians 1:8 was the verse I read just, in the office and as I use it to conclude this sharing, it is a fact that all of us will go through the troughs and peaks of life in the finite time that we have in this temporal world. The emptiness in the hearts of many, need not be due to material deprivation, it could be emotional, it could be health or even an unexpected mishap. The fallen world that we all lived in has a whole litany of ills that can beset anyone of us, even as we stay besotted with the lies of the devil.
'But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God Which raiseth the dead. Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver; in Whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.'
2 Corinthians 1:9-10
We, the imperfect human race, living in a fallen world, run by the deceitful Prince of the air, the devil itself is mired in ails aplenty, much as some might choose to challenge the existing reality on their own strength, and to end up in furthur grief. In every generation, there are always some who will think there is no Sovereign God, but history is replete with not just many a disappointment but testimonies of the truth by its previous detractors of the fallacy of man's own strength and God's omnipresence.
But what makes me and those who choose to believe in the very omnispresent God different from the non-believers and non-followers. The time spent in God's presence, the varied experiences in communion with Him, will not ensure that our imperfect self will intially not reassert itself, where we will do things we should not do and not do things that we should do. Our flesh will war against the Spirit of God residing in us who believe. But our growing into the likeness of Christ will ensure that we will not resist the control of the Spirit of God Who will lead us back to God, the source of all comfort and grace. We will be pulled back from the brink of despair and in fact, will see the wisdom of God's ways and His Sovereignty.
That is the promise of God in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10.
'And such trust have we through Christ to Godward. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Who hath made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.'
2 Corinthians 3:4-6
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
(12mar09)
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