To my Son the Soldier, on your Graduation

From the moment you were born you managed to steal everyone’s hearts with your cuteness, your sense of humor and unbelievably loving and caring nature.  When you were little, you had the ability to make me laugh, cry, scream all at the same time.  Come to think of it… you still have that effect on me!!!

As you grew up we realized nothing came easy for you.  You had to work really, really hard.  But from the smallest days you had the “never say die” attitude.  The more you failed the more you tried, and the more you worked hard.  Your breakthrough came when you gave your life to the Lord; you went crazy for HIM.  The fire in your heart was so alive, it challenged us so much.  And then suddenly, the student who was in the bottom 10 of the class went up to be the top 10 in school.

You realized you are no longer a grasshopper but an eagle.  You took every challenge as an opportunity to ride on the wind of the Holy Spirit.  One day, I discovered your secret written on the first page of your Bible; “to know you, as you know me”…  Sometimes I wish I had the same passion, the same fire that you have for God.  Putting God before everything else comes naturally to you, and you have no idea how it had challenged and pushed me to do the same in my own life.

It became more and more clear to us that the hand of God is upon your life.  When you enlisted in the Army I was concerned that you would lose your journey with God.  I was wrong; your journey became stronger and your thirst for HIS presence became greater.   In the midst of all that was going on around you, your heart was lost in the Lord.  In HIS faithfulness, HE made HIS strength yours; you went from Bronze to Gold in IPPT.

When everything seemed going for you, the “crisis” came.  I have always thought the biggest crisis a person could go through is when a problem appears to be bigger than God.  So we prayed for you; that you will not to lose HIM in the midst the crisis.  That Sunday, just before leaving for camp I heard you singing

“Precious Jesus, I am ready to surrender every care.

Take my hand now; lead me closer, Lord I need to meet you there”.

That moment I knew the “crisis” is over; HE has visited you in your Ground Zero.

God’s heart and hand are moved by men and women like you, who choose to live in the centre of HIS will, surrendered to HIM.  I knew you had moved HIS heart when I saw the SMS from you saying that your arm is almost back to normal, that you will take part in route march and the Passing out Parade.  

When SAF presents you guys as "Trained Soldiers" I am sure God will point you out and shout from Heaven “that guy over there, he is my Son; he makes me proud”.  As you go forward remember HE is your strength, your rock and your King who took your place so that you could walk free.

So now it is your turn soldier; Go, Live for HIM and make HIM proud!

Dealing with our lack of faith - by Jaques Fesch

Faith is not a means but an end, and your formal refusal of it comes only from a lack of humility.  You are refusing the most powerful help that can be given!  All the same, I understand this very well, because I used to have the same reactions.  We do not want to see.  We need to take only a little step, but it means leaving behind bitterness and pride and surrendering to the will of the One who can do everything.  You especially… who are so unhappy and so alone!

“Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest…”

What more do we want? What are we chasing after, if not relief from our misery?  O Creator, have pity on your creatures.  Consider that we do not understand ourselves, that we do not know what we want, that we have no idea what we are asking for.  Lord, give us light. 

How hard it is to love someone who does not love you, to open to someone who does not knock, to give health to someone who enjoys being sick and cultivates illness! “Have pity on those who have no pity for themselves!”…

You see, when I did not believe, I imagined that faith was merely autosuggestion, and that a person could come to belief simply by saying “I believe”.  My reasoning was based on my feeling that understanding was impossible, and on the contradictions I thought I had observed.  I was sure that this reasoning was logical and true and so it strengthened my conviction that God did not exist.

Now, I no longer understand how I ever managed not to believe.  It all seems so far away.  The most judicious reasoning and deductions, which used to attract me, now seem vain and above all “highly Improbable!”

Because of this, I can see that faith is truly a gift of God.  One believes with the heart, without knowing why or even seeking to know.  The intimate certitude that fills one is enough.  Of all things, love is the most powerful.

Jaques Fesch ( + 1957) was a murderer who experienced a profound conversion before his execution in a French prison. 

When God Disappeared

I knew something was not right… there was an empty feeling deep inside of me.  When I sat down to pray it felt like I was there all by myself; when I read the scriptures I could not hear His voice.  I started to miss Him, missed hearing His voice and feeling His presence.  Has God disappeared from my life?  I started to panic, but I did not know what to do except going about my daily routine. 

Slowly I started to realize that I was turning into a different person…  

She was bitter, selfish and drawn to things that were not pleasing to the Lord. She was self-centred, put her own needs before God. She had hidden agendas in what she did, yet felt empty.  She was spiritually paralysed.  

I did not like that person at all, and I panicked! 

They say “desperate times need desperate measures”… I decided to do what Jacob did; wrestle with God till I begin to hear His voice again and feel His presence again… until  I have that intimacy I once had with Him.

Later that day I was led to read the Acts of the Apostles, suddenly everything made sense... 

After the resurrection, Jesus promised His Disciples the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  He says “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8)

And THEN, He disappears!!!  

When Jesus disappeared, the disciples went into the upper room and joined together constantly in prayer.  It was then, that the promise was fulfilled…   

There will be moments in our lives when we will lose Him, but the good news is, we can find Him. 

In Jeremiah 29:13 God says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”. 

The secret to find Him is to seek him with all your heart.  I am surround by people who are in a deep journey with God.  They are not people who seek Him half-heartedly, or when it is convenient.  They seek Him every morning, every moment, about everything they choose to do and not choose to do. They do not seek Him to get something; they seek Him to find Him and Him alone.

Seeking God and His leading is serious business.  It is not a task we can delegate, or put on hold.  God wants to be found by those who seek Him, and if we are not seeking Him with all our hearts we may never find Him.  When we seek Him with all our heart we not only find Him, but receive power from on high... a power that we do not have in us, to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Soul of Christ (The Anima Christi)

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

O good Jesus, hear me.

Within thy wounds hide me.

Suffer me not to be separated from thee.

From the malicious enemy defend me.

In the hour of my death, call me and bid me come unto thee

That with thy saints I may praise thee for ever and ever. 

Amen

Praise Him in the Storm

Long time ago, the Lord taught me that the real crisis is not the circumstances that are beyond my control; but when I face those circumstances without Him… without believing that HE is my Father who is above my circumstances who is capable of turning any crisis into a blessing.

Most of the time we are after God, only to get Him to calm our storms that are on the outside.  If we even get the slightest hint that He is moving to calm the storms that are inside of us, we run away from Him because we are afraid of that He will rob us of the "pleasures of life" - because we know, most often they are the causes for our storms that are on the outside.  We continue to treat Him like a wending machine - put in a prayer,  press a button to get what we want and walk away as soon as we get what we want, only to find that there is always another crisis, another issue, another enemy, another sickness that we are not capable of dealing with.  And the cycle continues...

If only we took the time to sit before the Lord so that HE could calm the storms that are inside of us…  

To those of us who dare to do that, He calms the storms that are inside by giving the greatest gift one could ever ask for – the gift of Himself. 

When we know His presence in our lives, when we experience His love in the depths and when we hear His voice in our Spirit saying “you are my son / daughter, I love you very much”, the fears, the insecurities, the depression, the restlessness simply lose their hold over our lives. 

The greatest blessing is not to have everything going right, but to know that God is holding me safe when everything seems to be going against me, to know for certain that my Father is above all and that HE can change everything into blessings.

Jesus promises rest to everyone who comes to Him and is willing to learn from Him.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28,29)

O God of Second Chances and New Beginnings, Here I am... Again

People brought a blind man to Jesus and begged HIM to heal the man.  (Mark 8:22-26).  Many came to HIM because they were brought by others, or because they were pushed by their circumstances, or because they wanted to be saved from the death sentence staring them in their faces.  

Everyone of them wanted something from Jesus – the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the sick, the sinners, even the dying criminal on the cross next to HIM… they all wanted something.  Jesus had no problem with it, HE was ready to give – no looking into their track records, no questions asked, no judgment…  and HE broke their cycle of sin, sickness, addiction and gave them a new lease of life.  But to all of them HE said one thing, "do not sin again", do not go back to the old life.  The request is not for HIS sake, but for their sake.  Because HE knew staying saved was in their hands.

I come to HIM every morning as a person who falls and fails constantly.  When I look into HIS eyes, I see no judgment, no questions – all I see is love, forgiveness, mercy. And every morning HE gives me a new beginning, new opportunities.

Then HE whispers to me, “don’t go back”.  "Don't continue to live the way you did yesterday, the day before and before that.  There is another way to live".

In Psalm 15 the Psalmist writes about the qualities of the person who may dwell in the presence of God.  My initial reaction was, if these are the qualities required I would never make it…  

But Jesus whispers to me, “you will be that person, I want you to be that person".  "I offer you an intimate relationship with me, and my word inside of you will make you that person".  "I offer you a place in God’s sanctuary".  "This is what I offer you every morning, so don’t go back, don’t go back…”

As I start the day today, HIS words echo in my ears, “don’t go back”.  I see a new lease of life for myself… a second chance to do things differently by remaining in HIS presence. 

HE speaks to my heart directly through James 1:22-25;

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

O God, Restore us and Save us

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.  (Psalm 80:3)

With every enemy, face the danger of losing much more than material things.

When we are faced with an enemy we pray for victory over our enemy.  We believe victory over our enemies is about getting what we want.  What we do not realize is, in the process we pay a heavy price and lose much more than we would ever win. 


We get caught up in the battle; and we lose our inner freedom, inner peace, capacity to love and to serve.  Instead, ego, self pity, insecurity, bitterness, hatred and selfishness begin to control the decisions we make. 

“Restore us O God, that we may be saved”…

When I turn to God in my crisis, first HE restores what I had lost… inner peace and freedom, the capacity to love and to serve; and most of all the grace to trust in HIS plans for me…  It is only when HE has restored what I had lost that I will be truly saved from the destruction that the enemy could cause in my life.

They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. (2 Samuel 1: 12)

David is mourning the death of his nemesis???

The crisis with Saul had taken David deeper into the heart of God.  David had found that his security, his fortress, his rock is his loving God.  Therefore, the death of his enemy was not a reason to celebrate, but a reason to mourn. 

God has not only saved David from his enemy, but had restored all that he could have lost –  his ability to love his enemy, serve his people, inner freedom to make the right decisions for his nation…

Our focus on our enemy loses our ability to make the right decisions.  Therefore we act in self defense, we try to protect ourselves and our interests, and make decisions that harm us in the long term.  We may win a battle but lose the war.

Every crisis is an opportunity to go deeper into the heart of God and to journey with HIM closely.  It is an opportunity to cling on to HIM till we hear HIS voice and see HIS leading. 

“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”  (Mark 3: 20)

Crowds followed Jesus, yet the family thought Jesus was “out of his mind”. 

Family... the ones who should have been Jesus’s biggest support tried to stop HIM.  In a way, there were playing the roles of the enemy.  Towards the end of this Chapter Jesus says “whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother”. 

I sense His disappointment about His family members in this statement.  But I also see Jesus’s rising above HIS disappointment to include everyone who does the will of God as HIS family.  The crisis had taken Jesus deeper into the heart of God, and what could have ended in bitterness ends up in a revelation.

This is the difference between focusing on God and focusing on our enemies.  Max Lucado says it beautifully in his book “Facing the Giants”.

“If you focus on God, your giants will fall.  If you focus on your giants, you will fall”.

Reflecting Today's Readings: 12th January 2011

First Reading (1 Samuel 4: 1-11)

The Israelites were losing the battle with the Philistines and they decide to bring the Ark of the Lord to the battlefield.   When the Ark of the Lord arrives, Israel gives out a victory shout which terrifies the Philistines.   The Philistines had heard about the God of Israel and what HE has done to save HIS people.  The Philistines decide, if we have to go let’s go with a BANG! And they fight the Israelites with all that they have.

AND, the Philistines win! 

Israel lost thirty thousand soldiers that day, the two sons of the Prophet Eli who were with the Ark of the Lord were killed and the Ark of the Lord was captured by the Philistines. 

What really happened here?  

God moved the heaven and earth to bring the Israelites out of Egypt… but when things became easy, the Israelites took God for granted.  They lived to satisfy their hunger and their lust.  They lived separated from God, and they lived in sin.  On the day of the battle with the Philistines, they took the Ark of the Lord to the battlefield – but the Lord did not go with them.  

God was not theirs to be used.  HE is to be worshipped, to be honoured, to be loved by the people HE calls HIS own.  

Unfortunately we still continue this pattern… we easily fall into the sin of taking God for granted.  We begin by not having time for HIM, and move on to hating the things HE loves and loving the things HE hates…   Slowly but surely, a day will come when we can’t run away from the consequences of our wrong living.  On that day, we try to use HIM again, and we find out for ourselves, HE is not our's to be used.

Second Reading (Mark 1: 40-45)

A leper falls at the feet of Jesus and says, “if you are willing, you can make me clean”.  Jesus moved with pity, touches the leper and says “I am willing, be clean!”.  The leprosy leaves him immediately and he was made clean.

The day when the consequences of my wrong living catch up with me is indeed a day of blessing.  That would be the day that my eyes would open and I realize my sin of trying to use HIM to continue to live a life separated from HIM.  And that would be the day that I would fall at HIS feet and say “if you are willing, you can make me clean”.

HE is waiting to say the words… “I am willing, be clean”.  I am sure, even before I could complete the sentence, I would be made clean of my sin, my guilt, and my shame.

Yet, I do not want to wait for that day… I want to fall at HIS feet every day and hear HIM  say the words “I am willing, be clean”.  In fact, I do not want leave HIS feet at all, because all that I am looking for is right there at HIS feet, and so much more.