Sundaysnippets #14 Much ado about ash (25th April 10)

Dear...

'O God, do not keep silent, be not quiet, O God, be not still...'
Psalm 83:1

Be still and know that I am God. That is the command to all of us, to learn to come unto the presence of the Lord our God, to wait upon Him. But many think that in their time of need, they have waited, but nothing happened. Is God testing our patience?
As for me, I have learned to take time to recognize the quiet steps that God is in fact showing us, much as many have not fathomed the promptings of His Spirit, because they do not know Him, having never invested their all in developing a relationship with our Abba Father.

ASH was the word that I first received in church this morning. As we meandered in, a little late for church today, thankfully not a habit that some have gotten used to, my dear friend told me that the Icelanders have plenty of ash, but no CASH, for it seems that the letter C does not exist in their vocabulary.

ASH is indeed aplenty in Iceland now, their comeuppance, at least possibly in the thoughts of their still aggrieved European counterparts on the mainland. Cash the Icelanders definitely do not have, but who knows, should the vagaries of the wind reassert itself, the Icelanders might decide to bestow upon the European Continent, more powdery ash, in lieu of hard cash that they owe.

With others' cash, the Icelanders used to have a great BASH and such BRASHNESS in living it up has led to the inevitable CRASH. The Brits and the Dutch(from the land beneath the sea level) have understandably LASHED out at the deep GASH left upon their STASH of cash, conveniently forgetting that it takes two to tango, for the descendants of the Vikings needed cash to live up in all brevity the short daylight hours, and the once colonial masters of the world took a wrong turn and instead of looking East like their once premier East India Company, looked West for what they thought were new opportunistic investments.

Greece, not grease might be the word for now, but grease could be what the pompous French, the clinical Germans and the laid back Southern Europeans could soon find themselves sliding helter skelter over soon. Such caricatures of nationalities is a child of cultural biasedness in all of us, reinforced by comedies that play on such natural tendencies to degrade fellow men, but what is happening in Iceland nor Greece is a mess, and not the once popular comedy MASH, where turning off the telly meant that one's issue of life is resolved.

HASH, or rather hashish might be a good temporary solution to the unresolvable. MASH is potato, hash is not a herb but a drug that gives one a high. The financial markets are on a high. Even solid terra firma, aka property has gone astronomically high that today, governments from Australia to China are cracking their heads as to how best to stop many more from being RASH.

JASH is the initial of the component members of my family. And of course it start with the wife at the top, my two kids in between and the real man that is me anchoring the end. Workhorses we men are, and we know who is truly in charge much as the wives might think otherwise. To God be the glory.
SASH is what people of supposedly importance might wear, but sash can also serve a secondary use, for those who need to hang themselves., instead of the bloodier dashing of one's head against the rocks, when their world comes to an end, at least in terms of asset prices.

Enough of frivolous meanderings round the three letters "ASH' It is time to get a little more sober, since dinner is fast approaching and so does blue Monday. But to experience a dash of ash on our prized houses and cars might be one of faint recollection for many, for it last happened back in 1991 in Singapore, from the Philippines volcanic fallout.
But to be AWASH with the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, is an experience that will not leave you ASHEN faced, but instead, not just uplift your very being, but will bring you to the knowledge and understanding of truly Who God is, and your needed response, which has been long overdue.

'And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.'
Job 2:8

But in reality, most would have "to do a Job" before they can finally be willing to acknowledge the Sovereignty of the Lord our God and have their very being filled with His Spirit. Till then, the devil would be most pleased to help you wallow in your own private ash heap.
See attached link.( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/iris-lee/icelands-volcano_b_540185.html) Real or not, quite an interesting if not macabre face of the Iceland volcanic fissures. "The devil in him" is an oft phrase to describe an erratic behavior. Prayerfully, beneath the outward calm in us, is not an increasingly unbearable tension in one's life that will eventually, like the volcano, implode, much to the glee of the devil.

ASH might be what our bodily shell eventually will be, but to be sprinkled into the sea, or be blown away by the wind is not the end, for eternity still awaits. Would it be in eternal damnation with Satan, or will it be like the Pheonix that rose from the ashes. The choice is yours.

'Behold I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.'
1 Corinthians 15:51-52


God Blesses

Eng Hieang
(25th April 10)