Dear....
'...the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation..'
Ezra 1:1-4
The Book of Ezra narrates how God fulfills His promise to return His people to the Land of Promise after seventy years of exile. Israel's second exodus, this one from Babylon.
My heart stopped literally, as I sense the culmination of this quiet stirring in my heart these past few days, as I pondered upon these introductory words to the Book of Ezra.
The Spirit of our good Lord impressed upon my heart to take a step back to revisit the thoughts I have penned through these past 8 years of ministry of encouragement.
A retracement of the the footsteps I have taken, these past decade, following Christ in the desert of my life, a time of seemingly harsh conditions, yet of great joy and peace for Christ is the spring of life.
Like the Israelites of old, God took me out of Egypt when I first believed at age 15, but the bondage of Egypt never left me, for I never responded with my all to the call of God to all Christians, to move from tentative believer to determined follower of Christ. To be a holy and living sacrifice to our Sovereign Lord.
God is faithful. By His grace and divine intervention, His Spirit sanctified my very being at age 40, and I have been a determined follower to be like Christ since. The time has now come for the faithful to enter the Promised Land. Is it again like the remnants of Ezra's time or is it truly for the first time for most of us? It matters less. What matters is the need for a time of rest, reflection and repudiation. Rest because we must continue to draw strength from the Lord, for there will be 'giants' in the land of milk and honey, just as there were not just mirages but very real dangers in the desert.. Reflection to remind us to be steadfast for God is faithful. But why repudiation? At the cusps of entering the Promised Land, is a privilege granted to all, but taken up by few. We are the minority because by His grace, we are willing. God will bless the faithful. But much as we grew in our faith, to be like Christ, would mean that we must decrease, He must increase for to be otherwise would lead us down the road of Lucifer, the prideful one who wanted to replace God. We must start from God first, and not who we are nor what has made us ‘successful’. Move as He moves and not from our finite and flawed understanding.
‘Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.’
Jeremiah 1:6-7
Just two days back, I felt this prompting to reorganize my archive of the past 8 years. It is God's timing. As I now embark upon this "massive" exercise of doing a better cataloging of His Words shared over the past 8 years. The 400 plus 'missives' written will not be comparable to those issued by the Emperors of old, but I am reminded of how I have in freely giving, more than received by His grace and I stand in awe of how God indeed will use the willing powerfully.
And I will now take a temporary respite from writing new thoughts, but instead, take time to revisit and refresh some of the past thoughts that God has inspired me to pen. And may the lessons learned in the past, lead all of us to a deeper if not new understanding of our Spirit God, Who is making the final preparations for us, before He brings us forth into the Promised Land.
To minimize the number of sites you need to visit, I will continue to use the present blog address from this present series "Heart to heart" at http://eng-hieang.blogspot.com.
But it will stop at this sharing, Heart to heart #16, much as I have already penned the next sharing Heart to heart#17 titled "Chasing the dragon." Man plans, God directs, and till He brings us out of this period of consolidation and preparation(for me to resume #17 Heart to heart), the sharing going forward will be titled "Footprints in the sand," and may it be a reminder to all of us that the faithful God has always been with us, it is us whose heart has wandered off, and now is the time to realign our heart back to that of our Father, by retracing the steps we walked in the desert of our lives, as He leads.
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
(30th Jan 2012)
Where did the past 20 years went??
‘Except the Lord build the house , they labor in vain that build it…’
Psalm 127:1
Indeed like most, as we reach the age in our life, where we are more than past our “2nd half,” of mortality, most of us wondered where did the past two decades went? Did it whizz past us, like one driving while talking on the mobile, and before you know it, you were at your destination, but the route in between was a literal blank?’
Bob Buford, the author of the book “Halftime” says we should look for significance in the 2nd half of our lives and possibly leave a legacy. I beg to differ slightly. As a Christian, “2nd half” is less about sacrifice, but all about obedience. Giving the balance of our life to doing good for society in the service of God is laudable, but it must not start from our "greatness," or what we want to achieve, but from a simple commitment to surrender all to God and to follow Him. It need not be restricted just to those who have been successful in society and are ready to dispense from a position of strength, but rather, halftime applies to all irregardless of station in your life, for God looks for a humble and contrite heart.
The moment you called yourself a Christian, "follower of Christ," you have entered your halftime( the "old self" of your pre-Christian days, must now be replaced by the "new man," as a follower of Christ) and your response to the love of God is to realign your every breathing moment to His will, as His Spirit leads.
I have lived my past decade well, in seeking God with my all. The years did whizz past me, but it was lived well in the presence of our Lord. The peace and inexpressible joy was always refreshing, the presence of our omnipresent God was more than palpable, and till He brings me home, every day should be lived well preparing for eternity and not be wasted striving or in strife for the sinful temporal. For the day is evil, but the grace of God is suffice.
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