It's been a long hiatus. I've strayed awayed for a long time. Hadn't able to pinpoint the problem until service yesterday. God had been speaking to me subtly, through my quiet time with Him & BSF study, through the times when reading Francis Chan's "Crazy Love", and through listening to Hebe's latest album "To Hebe". Guessing I was there physically but not spiritually throughout...
Now on retrospect, it seems very apt that I came back to him yesterday, which also happened to be my Dad's birthday. I had been so busy with work and preparing for my Dad's birthday that I had forgotten that his actual birthday was yesterday, and not today, as I mistakenly concluded. I had remembered the exact date but somehow the date did not fit with the day of the week that was imprinted in my mind.... I think that's the way we treat God many times...We think we remember something when actually we end up missing the deadline/timing due to using our own calendar, which is faulty. Just look at the Singapore Swimming Team's fiasco at the recent Commonwealth Games.
This brings us to the topic of timing. Yesterday's service was on the 4 major wars Joshua led the Israelites to win to obtain the Promised Land. The 1st three had God's very obvious manifestation (i.e. falling of the walls of Jericho, the sun stopping, etc). The last one though was a long war, where it seems, there was no miraculous showing of God's power.
Wait! God did show his power, though it was indirect. It was through the Israelites' clinging onto His promise of being with them throughout, were they able to emerge victourious. People who do not know the situation may attribute this victory to the Israelites' own ability and perserverance. However, what they don't know was that the ability and perserverance was backed by love, faith and belief in God... (To get a better idea of this passage, please read Joshua and also tune into the recording of this service on my church's website, www.trinity.com).
For us who have accepted Christ, we are more than too familiar with the bridge analogy. Here I'll make a little change to it, use the traffic light instead, though it's not logical in the human way. My relationship with God is that going to The Destination. After consulting many maps, bus guides, I've realised that I HAVE to cross a seeminly narrow road and using the other side to get to the destination and I did. For the case of the traffic light on Jesus, when I was on the side which is not his route, his light is ALWAYS BRIGHT GREEN, beckoning us to cross. However once on his side while waiting for the bus/vehicle, I start growing impatient, uneasy, worried and panicky. What if I end up late? What if this route isn't right afterall? The thought of crossing back to the other side to try a different route surfaces. Jesus' traffic light now the FLASHES BRIGHT RED warning me of the dangers of going back. However the temptation of jaywalking back is so great as the road looks so quiet and peaceful with no vehicles. What I did not realise was there were hidden dangers. When I had just stretched wide on the road while the other still on Jesus' side, many vehicles had appeared out of nowhere, brushing by me, causing me fear. Should I just dash across or quiclyly pull back this wayward foot? Yesterday I had pulled my foot back and am thankfully in one piece.
For those who have either like me, put their foot on the way back to the other side or worse, still are now stuck in the middle of the road with vehicles zooming by at high speed, from my experience, turn to God's side and look at the Jesus traffic light and pray. Before you realise, it has become GREEN to go back to God safely. Once back on God's side, thank Him. Just thank Him.
I'll conclude today with some lyrics of the song "超级玛丽" from Hebe's album "To Hebe". Though the song is not entirely appropriate, part of the lyrics has seems very apt, at least for me. Since I'm already on God's side, why am I bothered on what seems so attractive on the other side that I want to jaywalk cross? It turns out that while strolling down the lane on God's side, I actually see so much more scenery... Who knows, maybe there are some on the other side who are envious of me being on God's side...
其实一条马路的距离 有时真的不用过去
再美的风景看在眼里 也可以好好放进心里
日升又日落人来又人往 玛丽偶尔抬起头看看自己
在别人眼里自己 自己也许也是风景
