Lightness of being #6 Elijah today (30th June 2013)

Dear.....

And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people
that have fought against Jerusalem;
Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,
and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,
and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
                Zechariah 14:12

The world has thankfully till now only experienced in conflict, the use of atomic bombs twice, once in Hiroshima on 6th Aug 1945, followed by Nagasaki on 9th Aug 1945.
And for those who have visited the memorials of these two cities, or have taken time to see the photographs or read the eye witness accounts of the aftermath of the atomic explosions, the words of Zechariah 14:12 seems hauntingly reflective of the human carnage then.

Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts;
Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts,
and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.
                  Zechariah 1:3

In the Bible, Prophet Zechariah was commissioned by God to encourage the people in their unfinished responsibility, the task of rebuilding the temple of God. The temple must be built, for one day the Messiah's glory will inhabit it. Future blessing is contingent upon present obedience( quote from "Holman Holy Bible")

Today, with the New Covenant, we are the temple of God. We are the unfinished work. We must be made ready before Christ returns.
In the Old Testament, the Book of Zechariah precedes the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Malachi. Much as Zechariah exhorts us to be made ready as the Temple of God, the Book of Malachi reminds us to be a living example to our children even as they are being made ready. And indeed after the Book of Malachi was a period of 400 years of prophetic  silence, for God, appointed no new Prophets till the beginning of the New Testament.  The New Testament began with the presentation of Jesus Christ, the long awaited Messiah in the first Book of the New Testament, Matthew.

We are living in the last days. The time and urgency to be ready for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is now. We will have no luxury of a further 400 years before Christ returns.  In the 400 years of Godly silence, God was still at work, to prepare the ground for the return of Christ and the spread of the Gospel.

Therefore the he goat waxed very great:and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.
                        Daniel 8:8

The Old Testament ended with the Jewish Diaspora living under the Persian Empire. The Greeks took over under Alexandra the Great (the goat in Daniel 8:8). And by the time the New Testament began, the Roman  Empire was flourishing with Greek and Latin as the global language,  and with Rome as the centrifugal point of the Empire. Both facilitated the spread of the Gospel.

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
                    1 Peter 1:15

A runaround I hope I have not given you. And may it not be a maze I have walked you through, but rather be amazed by the Bible.
The Word is God and God is the Word. The living word of God will not just guide, correct, teach, encourage and uplift us. But the many prophecies will be brought to fruition.
There are many more treasures that awaits us who are willing and determined to soak in the Word of God. Truths that are God inspired that will make us ready for His return, much as it will empower us to be living testimonies of the grace of God our Father in Heaven.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain:and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
                    James 5:16-17

The power of prayer. Prayers not just bring us into communion with our living God, but prayers allow us to know His will, and to be the conduit upon which His will is glorified to the watching world.

And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
                        Romans 1:27

Tonight, the US Supreme Court has just brought the world further down the slippery road to hell. It has struck down the Defense of marriage Act provision, and marriage is no longer limited to heterosexual union. The momentum towards a global Sodom and Gomorrah have increased greatly the past one year with more countries joining the bandwagon. And on a corporate level, increasingly the blue chip names are jumping onto the bandwagon. The day is near where to do business, you will have to carry the "mark of the beast." ie LGBT supporter.

Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
                          Romans 1:32

Christ will return to judge the the world. God wants all to be saved, but sadly not everyone is willing. But many will, and the time has come for us the blessed, to be like Elijah of old, to lead the flock through prayers and its empowerment.

For the body is not one member, but many.
                  1 Corinthians 12:14

And it is not just one Elijah, but a community of Elijahs. The Elijah of old felt distraught and overwhelmed despite being used by God in all His glory. Today, there are many of us who have seek to serve God well, yet could find ourselves in a similar situation.
I believe in these End Times intensified, God Who has lifted the blindness in our hearts these past decade, prepared us individually in His service since, is now bring about a coalescing of this individual ministry into a collective unity of Spirit.
For in this world, the evil one is arraying its forces for what is already a lost battle for them. Satan knows that, but in its deceit, it hopes to draw more into its downward spiral to eternal damnation.

A parallel economy, of God fearing individuals who run their personal and work lives based on Kingdom living. The world is no longer where one can separate belief from work. The LGBT movement on the pretext of equality is imposing inequality on the world. Soon, there will be only one toilet for all sexes, for there is no male or female in their world. In their warp arguments, to stand firm to live out one's beliefs is taken to be discrimination and hatred against them. Differences of opinion at least in the context of the English language as I know it is never taken to be discrimination!!

A parallel economy is less of a physical demarcation, but rather one of spiritual focus and spirit led living.
How do we conduct our lives with Christ as our bedrock rather than what the world demands. The latter a conformity towards consensual evil, with Mr Obama and the major US corporations leading the charge, flanked by their British and French counterparts.

'..... And now I will show you the most excellent way.'
          1 Corinthians 12:31

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
            1 Corinthians 13:1

Love. That is the plea of the LGBT movement. It started from the lack of love for their being different to now, the right to love differently. And soon, as to move to a collective majority in the institutional arena, the right to hate you because you do not live their kind of lusts. The Christians in the old Communist era were persecuted. Yet many could still love their evil masters to pray for them. Can we do the same for this new nemesis?
For love, God's love conquers all.

And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him:but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
            1 Kings 18:21

Elijah prayed for rain, and rain came. He prayed as our Lord directed him.
Today, God commands us to shower the world with love, not lusts as is the agenda of the LGBTs. But lust is not the sole preview of the LGBTs. We are all as guilty.
Will we not now repent and be determined to be different from the world, to be like Christ?
And boldly proclaim like what Elijah did in the evil times

"Elijah stood up boldly for God in a time when idolatry had swept his land. In fact, his name means "My God is Yah(weh)."

God blesses

Eng Hieang
30th June 2013

Lightness of being #5 Antioch or Nineveh?? (23rd June 2013)

Dear...

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
                    Acts 2:20

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
                    Revelation 6:12

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
                      Joel 2:31

With the haze these few days, it makes sense to remain indoors. But driving home towards the West, one would have seen the setting sun looking a crimson red. Thankfully it is not the moon that is red or one could be witnessing the onset of the end of the world.

This late morning, I braved the choking smog(PSI 401) to meet interesting new friends from an exotic locale  at the Marina Bay Sands(MBS). Quite a marketplace MBS is, and the general air of anticipatory windfall at the casino seems to permeate this place. A nonchalance to almost complacent disregard to the worsening climatic conditions just a few steps away, saved for the glass dividers.

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:
                        Joel 2:32

Singapore, our beloved nation has become a microcosm of the world. A growing destination of choice for the rich and famous or infamous, and with it a coterie of riff rafts as well as a diverse range of value systems. Our nation has upon its bedrock, the traditional family values, which has sustained our growth as a nation. At this juncture, much as our government has reiterated the importance of the traditional family, our value systems are increasingly buffeted. My friend, who has been a regular visitor to our island for the past three decades, observed that what used to be possible only in the sleazier locales of our neighboring countries, is now easily within easy reach in Singapore.
And maybe it is providential that the inspiration for this sharing has its roots in MBS, for like my friend made in passing, he never imagined it possible that a casino can ever surfaced in the Singapore he used to know, where incorruptibility and traditional values once ruled the roost.

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?  Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?
                    Job 27:8-10

SARs was almost an anomaly for a clean city like Singapore. And dengue fever, one would have associated this scourge with the steaming real  jungles of our neighboring countries rather than an urban center like Singapore. And now with this mother of all haze, are we truly both the victim as well as the accomplice, given that as a financial centre, we not only provided the source of funding for the dominant plantation firms, but also is a safe haven for their largesse?

Sorrow is better than laughter:for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
                    Ecclesiastes 7:3

"The ugly Singaporean." Beneath our veneer of elitism, is a self centered self seeking denizen. It is not applicable to most, but if we are not careful, the "gotong-royong" or collaborative community spirit that was so very much in practice in the days of our parents, but now hardly deliberately practiced in our generation, will not just disappear, but be replaced by a "me first, me only" attitude in our children.
Satan, the devil is a self centered, prideful denizen whose misdemeanors led to his fall.
As a nation, who are we following? Christ or the devil?

Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found:for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
                          2 Kings 22:13

This morning, our good Lord reminded me that thankfully as a country, we are not Nineveh yet, that cruel nation that takes joy in tearing her vanquished  enemies apart. But we are moving inexorably to the likeness of a modern Babel, where money is the common language for the world's wealth that is increasingly converging upon our tiny Red Dot.

Peter therefore was kept in prison:but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
                        Acts 12:5

As a nation that is well ordered and like to believe in the control of our own destiny. SARs, dengue fever and now this haze is a firm reminder of not just our vulnerability, but the reality that we can never, by our own strength, be in control of our destiny.
But thankfully, God is Sovereign and now is the time to acknowledge that reality not just in prayers, but in the way we live.
To exercise the physical body is a challenge in this haze, but why not work on our long neglected spirit man?
What about love for our neighbors? Will you share your limited stock of N95 mask with your neighbors? What about the foreign workers laboring in the hazardous conditions today?

There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
                          Luke 17:18

Today, the PSI index dropped to 73. A wonderful reprieve as seen in the many who took the opportunity to resume their outdoor activities. But how many of us took time to thank our Lord for His grace? And how many will need to go back to the haze imposed prison in order for them to repent and realign their lives back to Christ?

The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
                          Psalms 121:7-8

My 12 year  old Honeywell air purifier breathed its last this morning, after being called back into service after a long hiatus. The exertion must have killed it, though its demise was timed perfectly to coincide with the better weather today.
I have ordered a new Honeywell purifier from the States. It should arrive by early July.
Prayerfully the haze will not return before then. But come next Sunday Jun 29th is Pink Dot day at the Hong Lim Park. The organizers do expect 15,000 LGBTs and their sympathizers to turn up. It is not for us to pray for haze just at Hong Lim Park to smoke them out. But rather to pray that their search for love is realigned to Christ our Lord, for God is love. Satan is lusts. Only Christ can make right the longing in their hearts to be loved that unfortunately lusts cannot fulfill.

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
and to depart from evil is understanding.
                        Job 28:28

Parts of Johore had a API reading of 700. In Singapore we were blessed with the low 70s.
A strange disparity as if an unseen hand has sheltered us, given our close proximity.
God has given us a reprieve, for us to repent and turn to Him. What must we do?
To seek Him with our all and love our neighbors, for the times are near.
Will we do it voluntarily or do we need to be forced upon our knees when PSI is at 700?

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep:for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
                          Romans 13:11

God blesses

Eng Hieang
23rd June 2013

Lightness of being #4 Is Faith illogical??(19th June 2013)

A Preamble - Crossing 52

The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness:and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
                          Ecclesiastes 2:14

Wish the number above was the PSI reading for this annus horribilis haze, , for that will be breathable air compared to the oppressive near if not already hazardous 290 reading. Is it mere coincidence that tomorrow I reached a new milestone( at age 52)  in my climb up the tree of life, just as man's greed and selfishness is making it possible for us to empathize with the over fogged mosquitos, what with the PSI possibly going past 300!!(as I pen this, my son just told me at 11pm, it crossed 321)

What if the PSI touches 500? Does it truly matter anymore this present Singaporean pursuit of higher car prices and even more astronomical property prices.
Haze and dengue fever, its extremities are less about nature, but more about the continued sins of us, the fallen man.

In all things, God is Sovereign.It is good to reflect as a nation, the state of our hearts with our Lord. It is time to come down on our knees, in repentance, for God is a forgiving God.

I know I will still be around till at least age 75. Our good Lord impressed upon my heart when His Spirit assured me back in Sep 2011, when I first discovered the 40% blockage in my heart. An upgrade in my journey with Him, He says.
Was I hallucinating then, as some are likely to these few days, with this unbearable haze?

Do take time to ponder these thoughts below that God has placed in my heart these few days.

Is Faith Illogical??

Dear...

And he said, Come. And Peter went down from the boat, and walked upon the waters to come to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me.
                  Matthew 14:29-30

As followers of Christ, how many times have we walked on water, only to very quickly sink into the realization that it was illogical? This morning, as I was deciding as to which lane to filter my car into, my logic and experience tells me that it should be the first lane. My spirit man prompted me to take lane 2 instead. By faith I moved from lane 1 to lane 2, and was thrilled to see that lane 2 was smooth, compared to lane 1 which had two unexpected hindrances within such a short lane. Is this what childlike faith entails?

For what great nation is there, that hath a god so nigh unto them, as Jehovah our God is whensoever we call upon him?
                      Deuteronomy 4:7

Faith is not about us making a wish, and then expecting God to bring it to fruition.
God answers prayers asked in His will, not ours.
Faith is about our spirit man sensing the will of God, as His Spirit prompts us. And faith is about responding to this command, much as our natural man might question the logic.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
                  1 Corinthians 1:25

For those of us who do take time to read the Bible, this is not an unfamiliar verse.
God is far superior to us, we know that. But here begat the question, if this is true, why are most of us struggling with trusting Him?

"For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness..."
                  1 Corinthians 1:22-23

Like the cross breed cartoon  characters  in the books of Dr Seuss, all of us started as and most continue as "Jeeks," a cross breed of the sign seeking Jews and the intellectual Greeks.
The Jews thought that their Savior from the oppressive Romans would come in the form of a superhero. It was repulsive for them to imagine a lowly carpenter being the fulfillment of their hopes. Today, many of us cannot move forward in our faith, for we find it unfathomable to do the things that God is showing us. For example, in the corporate world today, which is now truly a jungle than its previous incarnation of a zoo, can one be of integrity and still be fruitful? With man it is nay impossible,with our Sovereign God, all things are possible.

Just last week, I was doing a little study on Sapporo city, Hokkaido as the 2nd base for my future ministry.. A little snippet of interesting information popped up. There was an American academic, William Clark who was hired by the Japanese to help develop the agricultural educational framework for 19th century Hokkaido. Clark left not just a good agricultural legacy, but also a Christian heritage in Japan and this famous catchphrase - "Boys - be ambitious."
What about the Christian clarion call? Should it be "Men - leave aside your ambivalence and move forth."

Thou wilt show me the path of life:In thy presence is fulness of joy; In thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
                  Psalms 16:11

Today I just led my 8th Worship session in Church. It by far has been my most enjoyable, because I surrendered my heart to our Lord.  The run up to it was the most challenging though, for the hymn given to me, I could not find on the YouTube to learn from. Fear not, I have learned, wherever God brings us, He will provide and indeed He has.
To the logical world, this willingness to rest in our Lord runs contrary  to the natural reaction to either feeling flummoxed or run helter skelter for help.

I am the door:by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
                      John 10:9

I am sure, if you were to revisit your own walk with God, there will be many instances where by faith, you did as the Spirit of God led, illogical or impossible as it may seem. And that joy you experienced when the unseen but Divine hands of Our Sovereign Father makes the impossible possible. For to everyone  who witness the  cruxification of Christ, who would imagine that victory awaits the necessary death on the cross?

Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee:and upon earth he made thee to see his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire.
                    Deuteronomy 4:36

Every day is a new day to look forward to when we look to God. And we have a God Who will speak to us. Conversation with God, is that possible or is it a hallucination?

God blesses

Eng Hieang
19th June 2013

Lightness of being #3 Tectonic shifts (11th June 2013)

Dear....

And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him:for they know his voice.
                   John 10:4

I believe I heard God right. And in faith, I responded and make my first property investment in the land of onsens, cherry blossoms and earthquakes.
As an investment,  the 12% net  rental yield is  exceptionally attractive, and the capital investments small and ridiculously cheap for a developed economy, at 1/8 of an equivalent in Singapore.
But if it was purely a secular investment, one has to be very cognizant that the Mother of all earthquakes is possibly looming in Watanabe land.
Japan is a very hard ground that has been plowed over in significant ways. From the the distinction of being the one and only country to be embellished by hell's fire ( two atomic bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima), to the Kobe earthquake and the recent wash over by the tsunami cum nuclear fallout.

These things said he:and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
                     John 11:11

The American victors, led by General MacArthur were benevolent administrators of the defeated Japanese after the end of WW2. The Japanese economic Phoenix not only rose from the ashes, but reached its zenith right to the early 1990s. But in exchange, the samurai spirit was suppressed and few Japanese of the post war generation truly know their history nor appreciate their wealth of exquisite  art.
Fast forward today, the once colossal post war Japanese economy has been in malaise for the past two decades. Yet, though rudimentary, it is stirring. But of greater omnipotence is the rising tide of nationalism.
We are witnessing the spiritual reawakening of a once compliant post war Japan.
Will it be the resurgent nationalism of the past, that brutal beast that once threatened the world and brought untold misery to its Asian neighbors or can it be possible that God wants to bring about a final liberation of the darkness that has hovered over this nation for eons?

It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
                 Isaiah 40:22

Tectonic shift, a term used to describe a strong and widespread impact. Like President Obama, who mistakenly use the word, "Teutonic," instead of tectonic,"  I did make the same gaffe when I first titled this sharing. But in all things, if our hearts are right, God will turn a wrong into right. And perhaps, "Teutonic," is an apt follow through from my thoughts on the resurgent Japanese. For Teutonic refers to the Germanic race, whose core, the Nazi Germans of Adolf Hitler were bedfellows with the Imperial Japanese army in their efforts to subjugate the world during WWII. And much as Germany lost the war, today they are increasingly the kingmaker in the aftermath of the ongoing European debt crisis.

And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
                     Revelation 17:12-13

What seems implausible has become reality. I did not realize that the British, the nemesis of Hitler's all conquering military, were of Germanic blood as well. And who would imagine the Biblical proclamation of an united Europe ever coming to fruition. Today,the seemingly impregnable Iron Curtain separating capitalist Western Europe from communist Eastern Europe has long fallen. And paradoxically, the economic malaise in Europe has made the integration of One Europe a compelling reality. And just yesterday, the powers to be in Europe are pushing for one individual to be the economic tsar rather than shared amongst a committee.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was:and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
                Ecclesiastes 12:7

In the midst of the above major seismic shifts, there is an unobtrusive but  creeping reality that none can avert, which is mortal death.  For most it is a matter of when, not whether.
But with  death will come eternity, and it is imperative to be made ready for it.
Today the lovely cities of Central Europe like Prague and Budapest are at risk of being flooded over, not just by the ongoing debt crisis, but by the physical elements.
Like the majestic Hungarian Parliament House with its lovely lighted hues that so enthralled me a couple of years back, but now at great risks of being washed over. We have a joyful life that God has given but not many appreciate. Are the tides of this difficult world lapping increasingly upon your life?
It is good to ponder upon and respond to the omnipresent God while He is still available for us. For when Christ returns, there is no more room for shifting allegiances, but judgment.

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
                   Acts 17:26-27

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:Fear God, and keep his commandments:for this is the whole duty of man.
                 Ecclesiastes 12:13

God blesses

Eng Hieang
11th June 2013