Dear...
'The he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.'
1 Peter 4:2
Vilified bankers might be a phenomenon of these past two decades, but trashing journalists for sensatiionalization and distortion of news is not new. But then, the same could be said for many other professions, be it predatory lawyers in the Western world, Shylock businessmen globally and conniving and shifting politicians backed by bloodthirsty military men. And not forgetting doctors many of whom have forgotten their Hippocratic Oath, in their determination to treat you as a cashcow.
For most of us, our lives need not be so glamorous, if that is how the increasingly warped world begin to take villains for their role models, but have our lives till this moment been ideal, at least in our eyes?
'But the end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.'
1 Peter 4:7
I dare attest that since the Spirit of God fell upon me that Bangkok night, I have been a fairly diligent teetotaller as far as deliberate sins are concerned, though being imperfect, like the occasional drink, I do have a little foretaste of tempting sinful behavior, but by the grace of God, have managed to spit it out before it has a chance to encapsulate me fully. Life has indeed been wonderful for God is now my focus these past 9 years.
'Will Thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, Thou art the guide of my youth?'
Jeremiah 3;4
But would life have been even more wonderful if I had started with the Lord right at the beginning of my formative years. Would a godly human father have made a difference in my earlier wretched life? For if so, then I could have published a 1000 page book instead of my maiden 52 page book.
This was the thought that resonated in my heart yesterday. We, ie some of us on the mail-list were at a fathers' prayer retreat and were blessed by the honest sharing by two wonderful men of Christ. The keynote speaker spoke fondly of his wonderful father, who brought him up with love and the right values. My father was not that way, and that thought resonated within my heart as another dear brother shared about his father who only comes home to stay once a year, reason being his father had other interests of the heart. My father did come home often, but his coming back created more dread than love and life seems more peaceful then, whenever he wasn't home. Of course, i have now come to know that the reason for his absence and yet unsettling presence was again the same interest in affairs of the hearts outside the matrimonial home.
But that is now irrelevant, for God has transformed my father from a man of the world to a man who now seeks Him and God is good, in allowing not just healing in my family but time with my now aging parents.
'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
The food column in this Sunday's paper had the headliner "from bad boy to chef" and details the story of how this now fairly popular chef sobered up after an accident at age 16, and put to rest his past misdemeanors, to really work on his life.
Unlike this gentleman, i know for myself and I believe the same applies to my dear brother in Christ, that much as we have less than ideal role model fathers(though I believe such galivanting fathers are the norm rather than the exception in the '60s and '70s), we were pretty decent kids, who stayed decent, though at least for me, the moving from good person to believing in and following Jesus Christ as our Savior, came much later. But I did not stray
The same Sunday newspaper had another article, where writer just had a class reunion after 20 years. And he reminisces upon the fact the different paths each had taken, and would it have been different if they had taken a different route at every crossroad?
'As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.'
1 Peter 3:14
The past matters not. For God has shown that much as our fathers might have muddled through, God has already set the path for each and everyone of us. Diverse routes each of us might seem to have taken in life's journey, but the path will be the same for all, once you believe, irregardless of one's past and even present ciircumstances. But will you be willing to seek Him and respond to His leading, when His Spirit lifts the blindness in our hearts. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. It is He and not us who is the writer of the story of our life, but will you be willing to let go and let him, and instead strive to be the pen that God will use?
And what will be the story of your life from here on, once you truly seek to follow our Lord Jesus Christ? I know it will be a wonderful story of His grace and love and omnipresence instead of the past life of angst, strife and discontentment. And rest assured, that story that God is waiting to write for you is not fiction. It will not be a figment of one's imagination.
But it is more than your story. In those times when most of us do not have fathers who are truly men after the will of God, much as we count ourselves blessed to have come to know God, we will agree that God did send us helpers along our rock strewn paths. For we walk not alone, even in those nights that might have seemed brutally desolate.
'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.'
Malachi 4:5
The end might not have come as I type this. It might not even come by the time the doomsday movie "2015" hits the screens. But clearly the end times are intensifying. The earth is shaking more, evil men and lustful men and women are increasingly coming to the mainstream of society. God is patient but He will not hold His hands forever.
I believe that time is short, and so unlike the blinded fathers of the prior generation, we the fathers of this generation has had the blindness in our hearts lifted that much earlier, for now is the time for us to live a life that will be exemplary of Christ-likeness, to turn our children and loved ones from the encroaching hands of evil, no different from the lustful men who stretched their hands to try to drag Lot's visitors to engage in unnatural lustful acts of disobedience.
'But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot, and said unto him. Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them....And (Lot) said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.'
Genesis 19:4-6
There will be two conclusions to the story of mankind. Which will you choose?
'Watch therefore, for ye know not what the hour your Lord doth come.'
Matthew 24:42
God Blesses
Eng Hieang
(8th Nov 09)
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