'.... And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.'
Daniel 5:23
Dr Faustus sold his soul to the devil, in exchange for power and knowledge for a finite number of years. Is this play written in the seventeenth century still very reflective of the "Faustus." in many of us? We ignore the omnipresent God, and continue to partake in the life of angst, strife and self determination that will bring the curse of Egypt upon us.
Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,
for in you I trust.
Make me know the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Psalms 143:8
Is going down on our knees every new day, to ask God to show us His will for us for the day, an act of delusion to avoid having to deal with the difficulties of life? Or is it truly an acknowledgement of God's sovereignty and our limitations. A reality that Adam and Eve ignored at great folly when they succumbed to the devil's prodding, and chose to move away from dependency upon God to self.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psalms 23:1
A familiar verse often used in obituaries and at funeral wakes. Yet, is this an indictment of the failing in most of us, being willing to entrust all to God, ONLY when all else fails, and in this case, it is not even the choice of the departed!
Should we not trust God Who is Lord of everything this very moment, and in every breadth that He grant us?
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7
Every new day, at the break of dawn, I remind myself this new day is given by the grace of God. Every morning, I also glanced through the obituaries in the newspaper, to remind myself that once we breathe our last, we will no longer be able to make right our lives before we meet God our Maker.
Every new day that God provides, my prayer would be to have the wisdom to discern His will for me today.
And that His grace will enable and empower my spirit man to honor Him, as His Spirit leads, in my response and interaction with my community, to be the lamp upon which His light will shine forth.
and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain,
1 Timothy 6:5-6
Strange, many will think. What about your worldly obligations to family, to employer?
How will you be able to make a living in this present world if your thoughts and actions are focussed only on Yahweh?
The Word of God is the bread of life. But will that be suffice to take care of our bodily needs in this present world? Should God not prosper us materially?
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Matthew 4:8
A sense of deep insecurity as regards material provisions, is what drives my life and my perceived success. God by His divine grace removed this burdensome lie that has hovered over me and freed me at age 40, and empowered me to go out to share the message
"that the chains on our soul has long been removed. That we can walk out of the prison gates that Adam found himself ensnared in, when he transacted with the devil."
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.
Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.Matthew 4:10-11
That it is God our Provider that truly matters, not His provisions.
As the year draws to an end, many of us are starting to budget for next year. There is an implicit transaction, for the numbers set will determine our renumeration and the quality of our work life grind.
Much as we as Christians must honor our earthly employers, the only true employer is the Lord our God.
It is imperative that we must start with, always be with and end the day with God.
Will doing so help us achieve our earthly goals?
Not necessarily, but God knows our needs and in doing His will, His ways are always better than ours
1 John 3:21-22
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
God blesses
Eng Hieang
16 Nov 2013
An afterthought - For whom the bell tolls?
If my memory fails me not, this was a book written by Ernest Heminway
For the world of me, much as I remember Sally Fields as the Flying Nun, I cannot remember the plot of this book. But matters not. Rather what is more pertinent is this question "for whom are you toiling for in your drive to attain the temporal things of this finite world?"
Ecclesiastes 4:8
one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
This evening, by the faithfulness of a bro in Christ, I was blessed to attend an introduction to an initiative that runs close to my heart, especially this past one year.
It is more than Bob Buford's second half, where one dedicates one's life to God, after having done the needful in our secular career.
It is about continuing where God places us, possibly for many in the secular career, but with a realignment in focus. We respect our secular bosses, but we work only for God.
Can we in this world, yet not be of this world in our daily work?
And this is a call by His grace, I have answered a year back, wrestled with my carnality, yet God has always been faithful much as I often wavered.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
This evening, God has brought a gathering of Christians who are like minded to build this individual response into a community. A parallel economy run on Godly principles as contrasted to the increasingly deviant economic system of our present world, where the mark of the beast is no longer opaque. Where to do well in corporate life, you will increasingly have to exhibit or at least accept the beastly behavior of greed, pride, selfishness, deceit, anger, envy, lusts and impatience.
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