"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
- Hebrews 11:13
26 November 2008
I Don't Want to Live on the Moon
Yes I've always express my desire to fly to the moon, especially when I'm down. But I guess at the end of the day, I'll sing what Ernie sang.
The moon is still a beautiful getaway though. I still love the moon!
’Tis the blessèd hour of prayer, when our hearts lowly bend, And we gather to Jesus, our Savior and Friend; If we come to Him in faith, His protection to share, What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!
Blessèd hour of prayer, blessèd hour of prayer, What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!
’Tis the blessèd hour of prayer, when the Savior draws near, With a tender compassion His children to hear; When He tells us we may cast at His feet every care, What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!
Blessèd hour of prayer, blessèd hour of prayer, What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!
’Tis the blessèd hour of prayer, when the tempted and tried To the Savior Who loves them their sorrow confide; With a sympathizing heart He removes every care; What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!
Blessèd hour of prayer, blessèd hour of prayer, What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!
At the blessèd hour of prayer, trusting Him, we believe That the blessing we’re needing we’ll surely receive; In the fullness of the trust we shall lose every care; What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!
Blessèd hour of prayer, blessèd hour of prayer, What a balm for the weary, O how sweet to be there!
I remember at the peak of my zeal I prayed a lot, and those times were truly blessed hour of prayer. When you talk knowing that God hears you, and all the burden you carry just falls off your shoulders, those times you can just kneel there forever and talk to Him increasing in peace and joy as you speak. There are times where you have to do something right, and you know that you can pray and ask for strength and He freely gives you strength to overcome your weaknesses. Those times are so sweet.
Now my prayers are full of begging for forgiveness and removal of sins, asking Him to bring me back to Him again. Though it's still sweet, 'cos you can talk to God still through Jesus, but the pain that you have to go through by going through your sins - the bittersweet of both confessing your sins and knowing God has forgiven them and the anguish at why you even sinned at the first place.
Continued from the previous post on the Aucas missionary:
After the death of the five martyrs, one's son, Stephen Saint, came into the midst of them to live with them, together with his wife and children. He was baptised by the now converted Aucas who once speared his father, and whom are also his spiritual elders now. After living among them, he had to endure yet another pain of losing his daughter (diseases I think).
One line he said that moved me to tears, not in verbatim:
There was a time when I was a young boy, who was told that his father is never coming home...and to endure the passing of the aunt that was so important to you...and to lose your only daughter...The wounds will never go away, but somehow there's this balm that smoothens all the rough and jagged ends.
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change, He faithful will remain. Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake To guide the future, as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.
Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart, And all is darkened in the vale of tears, Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay From His own fullness all He takes away.
Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on When we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief and fear are gone, Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored. Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.
Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high; Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways, So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye. Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.
Previously, in the midst of my exams, we quarrelled again. I asked u to leave me alone for a while. The next day you came by my school with Starbucks mocha and a choc muffin u bought especially from Holland V. I took it, we talked a bit more, then we quarrelled again. Instead of asking you to stay you had to turn around and leave.
I enjoyed your coffee and muffin. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.
Today at Pastor Joseph's house, we watched this Christian DVD on the late missionaries in Ecuador, titled Quest For The Aucas. (Click here for info.)
In January 1956, five young men ventured into the forbidden territory of the Waodani (Aucas), one of the world’s most feared people groups. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Pete Fleming, five young men in the prime of their lives, sought to bring the love and light of Jesus Christ to a stone-age people who had never heard the good news. But their mission ended tragically, a saga made famous by the books Through Gates Of Splendor and Jungle Pilot.
The Aucas were feared because of their savagery of killing - outside and even within their family. They were also people who believed in taking revenge. Spearing others for vengence, according to the DVD, was common.
The missionaries who went there went with the resolution to give their lives for this mission. And when they were killed - martyred - they truly lived up to their resolution. What's truly magnificent about their death is how they, though armed, did not retaliate, because they promised God that while they brought rifles to scare away the villagers, they would never shoot one of them. And so they died, speared by the Aucas who were afraid of their rifles.
One part of the show is Rachel Saint, sister of one of the martyr, recalling what she said to one of the spearers after they killed her brother. When he told her that they speared them because they thought the missionaries were going to use the rifle to kill them, she said that, no, they promised God not to kill anyone. The idea of love that sacrificial was so foreign to the Aucas, that when that Auca heard that, he trembled and shook really hard...
And then, the most powerful of all, is how the sister and the wife (or wives) of these martyred then stayed in that village and continued their work - living among their loved ones' killers, loving them, teaching them the word of God. The best proof of love among those foreign to the idea of sacrifice.
So now, the people who once speared these missionaries are saved, they are pastors in the Aucas church. They baptised the son of one of the missionaries who died in their hands and became his spiritual elder.
The hand of God is so real, so powerful. There is not human who can love their enemies to that extent unless they first have the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in them. There is no greater love than that of Christ which is able to let them forgive their enemies, and convert the savage heart to a loving heart.
Isn't it great that God still strife with you when you're in spiritual low, or when you are adamently in sin? He knocks at your heart, He speaks to you in different ways, even though you don't respond to Him, He continues to do so. He gives you no peace, your life is in a mess that you yourself made and He did not just take them away cause He wants you to look at your own mess and say "This is how my life is without God". But He keeps striving with you, struggling with you, sometimes He chastises, sometimes he encourages, but everytime He never leave you alone.
That's why I know I'm saved. That's why I know I'm His. And that's why even though I'm in deep mess and my life is in shambles I ask God "why" but I know why. I may be upset and at times frustrated at why God allow some things to happen in my life, but I still know that He knows His plans for me and He knows what He is doing. So I can still smile - deep down in my heart.
Lord, please don't stop striving with me if I fail you again and again...
Ok. I'm not an American, and I've not carefully studied the candidates' policies vis a vis America's economy and culture and political climate and everything. So whatever I've said is purely my own personal opinion that is inconsequential.
So I like Obama. He addressed the issue of race frankly and artfully, acknowledging the african americans' still existing anger amoung some of them because of oppression acted on them in the past, and the whites also are angry that there are extra benefits awarded on the african americans because of their oppression in history. He did not think that it is realistic to say America is now past the racial divide, neither is his presidency (if) going to change much of that. But he wants to work towards greater tolerance.
That's one.I
n an earlier speech on religion and governance, he addressed why he will not impose christian rules and laws on america politics. He acknowledges the fact that America is now secularise, and when the president presides, he/she is not presiding over christians, but atheists, free-thinkers, buddhists, muslims, etc. So if he wants to enact a law, he has to consider whether the other religions can find grounds in enacting that law too. Furthermore, if christian laws are to be enforced, whose type will it be? Will it be the old testament laws, where certain seafood are illegal, or according to which denominations' directions?
I'm a fundamental Christian, and I don't agree with abortions and gay marriages. But I agree with the Westminster Confession in the separation of church and state. The president cannot act as a christian alone, but has now become the boss of many many other religions whom, even according to the Bible, that we don't stone alive and expel them from the face of the world. We lament, we pray against immorality, but in governing multi religious country definately the leader will have to allow rights of other religions.
Furthermore, US's Christianity is unique in the sense that it has been and now still is very much tied to politics, simply because America was founded by Christians. While we Christians from Singapore will not understand the extent of such dynamics, we should not quickly associate Republicans as good Christians and Democrats and liberal/bad/non christians. If anything, Republicans believe in gun possession, do we believe in that? The culture of Singapore shapes our views that holding arms is unnecessary. Off shore drilling, tax cuts for the rich, war in iraq, which of these are Biblical? They may, they may not, and we'll have to have a whole book written on each of Republican's policies to understand whether or not they are biblical. Democrats' policies are seldom biblical, but they are do include rights of minorities and environmental policies and greater wealth sharing for the poor.
But the bottomline is, we should not link politics to religion, because politics are politics. They are unstable, and may all be outright lies and panderings. Politicians pander to bases in order to earn votes. So when McCain visits a Christian university, he's not seeking God, he's pandering to Christians. George Bush is suppose to be christians, but his presidency is hardly successful and his judgement is highly questionable. It does not mean that as long as one is a christian one can do well in all things, presidency included.
I think i'm writing this because I don't like the idea of supporting one party because they are commonly associated with conservatism/liberalism, and liberal = bad = not good president. Don't get me wrong, i'm conservative. But it's a whole different ball game to be a conservative POLITICAL party in amercia. You can't equate that with being biblical and godly.
On the other hand, with efforts now to save my butt in future, i cannot guarentee Obama is going to be a wonderful president. He may be bad, he may be like bush, or he may be the last president of the united states. But politics always play out differently than the election period. It's almost unfair to say voters of the other person should have seen that coming when they voted for one president. I don't think Bush's voters knew that he'll turn back on whatever he has said in his 2000 campaign and become the person that he is, and neither can you blame them for his presidency now.In any case, let politics play out as politics. Let religion be removed from it.
On our part, we can only pray for God's will to be done, and in this last days, that perhaps America would be spared from facing apolyptical crisis.