Lightness of being #33 Are you ready? (24 Jan 2014)

Lightness of being #33 Are you ready? (24th Jan 2014)

Dear...

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
                Romans 10:15-16

Many years back, I visited, on a morning, a dear friend who was on the throes of death. Her bodily system was shutting down, and much as the look of death was on her face, she was struggling to stall for time, to wait for the resolution of an unresolved family matter, that has marked her entire life. Thanks be to God, she left in peace later that same day, having witnessed her long wished for family reconciliation.

It has been more than a decade since I watched my friend enter her last day in this fallen world. But our good Lord gave me the privilege of saying goodbye to a dear brother in Christ just last Thursday. Though both my now departed friends were committed believers, the scene was quite different. This brother was at peace, and he seems to be waiting upon our Lord, in his quiet manner, for Him to take him home. He has run the race well and was ready.
I believe the reason God changed my visit to my friend at the Hospice from the planned Friday morning,  to Thursday morning, was not just to allow me to say goodbye to a dear brother in Christ( who departed on Thurs night), who has been a mentor to me, but to use me to pat him on the back twice,
I had patted him because his condition had left him with little ability to converse. But now as I pen this, our Lord placed the thought that the two pats were to assure my dear brother that his life was lived well in the service of our Lord, even as it was time to go home to be with Christ.

'.....you have hoarded wealth in the last days.'
         James 5:3

Mortal death, an inevitable but often conveniently subsumed reality. As shared, it has made its presence felt in my circle of human contacts just these past 3 days. I am not referring to the wealthy Chinese billionaire who died in a helicopter crash while on a celebratory flight to inspect his newly acquired vineyard. Though it does bring to mind the parable of the rich man with his overflowing barn.
But to people whom I have relationships with who either suffered a fatal heart attack, was diagnosed with late stage cancer or was near terminal phase in their illness.

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
                Romans 13:11-14

Our good Lord is always prescient. He not only

- impressed upon my heart the sense of urgency on the need to focus on today, to be made ready, as shared in the previous sharing "Surrendered life,"

- He has brought to close quarters, 3 people I know where the end is nigh, much as Christ has yet to return. And this is the reminder that we must be prepared not just for our Lord Jesus Christ's second coming, but the possibility of our being called home prior to that.

'But the end of all things is at hand, therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.'
             1 Peter 4:7

- and today, He has brought me to 3 verses ( Romans 13:11-14, 1 Peter 4:7, and Malachi 4:5-6) with the same message on the need for all of us to be ready, for the times are near. And for added affirmation, the 3rd verse, from the Book of Malachi, was the exact verse I was sharing with a brother just this afternoon. And Malachi was the verse that stared at me, when I first randomly penned the Bible this evening for my time with our Lord.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
                Malachi 4:5-6

生命有限，时光也会走。如果你不珍惜，机会难留

Life is not just finite, but fickle. All of us often forget that every breath we draw is by the grace of God. For my departed brother in Christ, every breath he took was precious, for he need the aid of an oxygen tank.

What is needed to get us all cognizant of the need to look beyond the temporal and instead, pay serious attention to and be very determined to prepare for eternity?
We often only react when we believe and may the words shared be used by our Lord to awaken the many who are spiraling towards eternal damnation, for God loves us all, and He wants you to grasp His outstretched hands, before it is too late.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
                  Romans 10:17

God blesses

Eng Hieang
24 Jan 2014

An after thought : Of horse heads and bull heads

Many of us grew up somewhat traumatized( at least for me) from watching too many Chinese dramas where the newly deceased are escorted by the guards from Hades, to brought to the different levels of hell, depending upon one's sins.
I am not sure if every escort from the less desirable  realm is either a horse head with the torso of a man, or that of a bull head on human torso, but I do believe when we breathe our last, there will be someone waiting for us. But who??

According to a dear sister in Christ of mine, her now departed father had this experience to share. Her father was a non believer who was in the ICU at the hospital, when he went into a spasm. Throughout the period that the doctors were frantically trying to save him, he found himself, presumably his soul in a different world, where sinister looking beings were pulling him with them. Her father in his desperate struggle cried out to Christ for help. A man in all morning glory appeared, and the forces of darkness vanished.
At this moment, my friend's father was revived. He lived a few more months but became a believer before he returned home to our Lord.
How did he know that he should call on Christ? It was because my friend lived her life as a believer, talked to him about the gospel, and she read the Bible and sang hymns to her dad even when he was in a state of semi comatose.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
                  Romans 10:17

Indeed, in our being determined to be made ready, God will use the faithful to help make ready our loved ones as well as whoever He will place in our lives.
Then can we be confident, when the sands in the hour glass of our life or that of our loved ones peters out, that we know Christ awaits at His Father's mansion.