Dear…
'No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.'
Matthew 6:24
As I was still struggling to put the finishing touch to my next intended sharing "Walking on water," the good Lord gave me a temporary respite and took me out of the water and instead, placed me with this crossroad of thought, that has always bedeviled most of us, which is, do we follow God or the devil? For to not follow God with our all is to follow the devil, there is no middle ground, much as contrary to popular belief.
If God was clearly visible to our senses, would it be less of a drag to follow Him? And if Satan was visible in all grosteque, I am quite sure most of us would not be in a hurry to follow his leading, in fact, we will be scurrying in the opposite direction, towards God, visible or not.
'Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink……for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you…'
Matthew 6:25-34
An obvious truth, yet why are we all oblivious to the promise of God. "Cents and sensibilities" an unintended pun on Jane Austen's great literary work "Sense and Sensibility' but as long as we measure living by our imperfect understanding, by the need to cumulate for the temporal, without really understanding or believing in the eternal, and if we continue to rely on our flawed senses, we will never fully comprehend the plans God has for all of us.
Out with the old and in with the new might seem a little drastic, but truly, that is a needed start. In taking the first step to believing in the salvation that God has offered to us through the sacrifice of His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we must take that next decisive step, which is not just to turn away from the devil and his alluring things of the world, and look towards the Lord our God, but to follow His leading.
So, I believed and did look grudgingly away from my lusts and desires, and looked towards God. But what do I see but a great expanse of seemingly nothingness, like the wide reaches of the unfathomable ocean. And worse, as my repressed sinful senses try to reassert its hold on me, my mind start to imagine the creepy things that must be lurking beneath the deep blue waters, and for added effect, my circumstances of life seem to take a turn for the worse, like a gale force storm brewing in the ocean. What have I done by stepping out of the slimey but certain hands of the devil, into the great unknown? Was not that the gripe of the Jews when they left the much loathed bondage of Egypt to follow Moses into the wilderness?
'For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every is given to covetousness….'
Jeremiah 6:13
Covetousness, as defined in the English Dictionary is the insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others. In my early introduction to the subject of Economics, one principle deeply ingrained in my then still fertile mind is the Law of Marginal Utility. To maintain the same level of satifisfaction, we will have to increase the quantum of our consumption at an increasing rate.
And worse, men has infinite wants, but the world has finite resources. This is the perfect recipe for men's present insecure state, where we willingly exchange our souls for the temporal delusions of the devil.
'Thus saith the Lord. Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.'
Jeremiah 6:16
If you truly believed, the Spirit of God already resides in your heart. There is no need to search the wide oceans, for His presence is already with us. It is time to let go and let God lead us, for only then, can we be firmly grounded upon the only right path, God's route as He prepares us for His return and eternity. To look and walk away from God, is to ensure that we will find ourselves once again like a rat on the devil's threadmill of despair and temporal but pained joy.
Much as the soaring financial markets continue to defy logic, yet reliving what history was in the 1970s, when financial assets recouped in one year, a substantial portion of its earlier losses, only to be derailed again by the reality of man's finite machinations This is a difficult time, be it for one in or out of the markets. Difficult because risks are very real if one were to invests, yet returns are next to miserable if one does nothing and even for those who think they are being enriched, frustrations will abound as levels form new peaks.
God has already shown those who seek Him the way of out of our convoluted state of mind. The old path, the good way as in Jeremiah 6:16 is the only way that will give us joy and peace and ensure that we do not come to grief again. To seek Him, by coming unto His presence always, to honour Him by the way we live and in doing His work.
God looks for obedience, not sacrifice and He knows our needs. Can we be trusted with plenty, if we cannot even be good stewards nor be contented with the present He has already blessed us with?
What comes after this year of great delusions will be one of redistribution. Where will you be in the plans of God?
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
(24sep09)
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