GPS - God's Positioning Service

While on a home visit to a hospice patient with a nurse last week, I found that I had lost my iPhone. A feeling of panic gripped me for an instant and I realized I must have dropped my phone in the taxi which we had taken earlier. By God's grace we were able to contact the taxi driver and he sent the phone to my home as he was in that vicinity.

This experience led me to look into the Find My iPhone App in case I lose my phone again. It made me appreciate the wonder of the GPS - Global Positioning System - technology. With the GPS we can locate an object as small as a phone!

During Christmas many would have been overjoyed if they had received a smart phone for a present. But we are reminded at Christmas that the greatest gift that God has given us is His Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ we have the blessed assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Through Christ, we have the Holy Spirit as our Heavenly Father's GPS (God's Positioning Service) so that we will be able to follow and do His will.

But like the Find my iPhone App, I need to first download the GPS of our Heavenly Father just as I needed to download the App. We have to "download" the Holy Spirit by inviting Jesus Christ into our lives. Unfortunately, having done so, we fail to live by the Holy Spirit and be guided by our Lord’s GPS. With modern technology we may be more connected with one another but we are becoming more distracted and disconnected from God.

We have not been taught the value and importance of solitude and silence to listen to the voice of God. This is not only for our own person growth. Solitude and silence is to lead us to community - to become a part of the body of Christ. Henri Nouwen found that it is in solitude that we come to know our fellow human beings not as partners who can satisfy our deepest needs, but as brothers and sisters with whom we are called to give visibility to God's embracing love. He made the point that in solitude we discover that community is not a common ideology, but a response to a common call. How true it is that it is in solitude that we realize that community is not made but given.

This is the second lesson I learnt from the Find My iPhone App. To find the smartphones that we have lost, we need another smartphone to locate it. This is why God gives us the gift of the church community for we need the support and encouragement of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to fulfill God’s will for our lives.

The wonderful news of the gospel is that in Christ, God will never lose track of us even though we may stray away from His love and His will for our lives. Our problem is that we have a tendency to stray from God. We need to realise that we are lost so that we take the necessary step to be found by God. All we need to do is simply to understand the wonderful truth that Christ is in us so that we can activate our Lord's GPS.

Let us encourage one another to make full use of the GPS of our loving Heavenly Father in the New Year. My warmest wishes for a New Year filled with the love, joy and peace of our Lord.

Rejoice With Heart, Soul and Voice

In the merrymaking of the Christmas holidays it is so easy to miss the true meaning of the birth of Jesus Christ expressed in the Christmas carols we sing and the advent stories we read in our bibles. We forget that it must have been a very difficult time for Mary and Joseph. There was no room in the inn and the young couple had to cope with the birth of their first born in a manger. One can only imagine the fears and anxieties they had to face.

The humble and difficult circumstances of the birth of Jesus Christ provide encouragement and hope to those of us facing the pains and struggles of daily life. Some of us are facing life threatening illnesses, the emotional storms of interpersonal conflicts, or the sorrow of loss. Such struggles are especially difficult to face in a season of merrymaking especially when God seems silent and distant.

The good news of Christmas is that Jesus came to share our pain, fears and burdens. For Jesus is Emmanuel - God With Us. Christopher Maricle noted that “God did not send Jesus to solve all our problems; Jesus came to teach us how to live with our problems. This human life is difficult, full of hardships and disappointments interlaced with occasional joys and successes.”

Jesus came to set us free from our bondage to the evil in the spiritual dimension, the evil philosophies of the world and the evil within ourselves. Jesus is God's wonderful gift to help us know and experience God’s unfailing love for each one of us.

But first we need to receive the gift. We need to come to our senses like the prodigal son and see how far we are from our Father's Love. The darkness in our lives is but a reflection of far we have turned away from the love of God. We need the spirit of repentance to turn back to our Heavenly Father.

Secondly, after receiving God's gift of salvation, we need to make full use of the gift. It may be easy to receive Jesus as our Saviour but the real problem for many of us, if not all, is to make Jesus the Lord of all our lives. It is so easy to be caught up with all the spiritual blessings of our new life in Christ and use it for our personal gain instead of using them to do God's will. We need to remember Jesus' warning in Matthew 7:21:

"Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter."

We need to remember that the will of God is for us rejoice always and to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess 5:16-18).

The Upper Room devotional today reminded me that the best gift we can give is the news of God's love shown in Jesus Christ. So let us rejoice and sing:

"Good Christian men, rejoice

With heart and soul and voice;

Now ye need not fear the grave:

Jesus was born to save!

Calls you one and calls you all,

To gain his everlasting hall.

Christ was born to save,

Christ was born to save!

May the humble and simple obedience of Joseph and Mary inspire us to experience the birth of the living Christ in our hearts this Christmas.

May you have a Blessed and Joyful Christmas!

BE IT UNTO ME

One of the stories at Christmas is that of Mary, the mother of Jesus, being given the news by an angel that she is going to be pregnant. Such news must have struck Mary with a sense of fear and trepidation of any unmarried woman who is told that she is pregnant.

How will Joseph take the news? Will he believe her? Will he break their engagement? Will she be stoned to death? It is a story of absolute trust and obedience. Her response, "Be it unto me, according to Your word" is both an inspiration as well as a challenge for all of us who seek to delight in the will of God.

Seeking and doing God's will is no simple or easy task. It is a choice that will take us right into the heart of a spiritual warfare. Richard Foster draws attention to the high cost of being faithful to God for the blessing of divine vocation can also be a great burden. He noted that those "who work for God, who dare to say yes to the divine summons, who dare to speak up for God, are often persecuted, victimized, and made lonely. Divine vocation does not always lead to earthly happiness.”

The prophet Jeremiah found it a joy and his heart's delight when he discovered God's Word and devoured them. And yet, he too was led to question why he was suffering from an incurable wound. He felt that God's help seemed as uncertain as a seasonal brook and like a spring that has gone dry. He then received the following response from God:

"If you return to me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve me. If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman. You must influence them; do not let them influence you! They will fight against you like an attacking army, but I will make you as secure as a fortified wall of bronze. They will not conquer you, for I am with you to protect and rescue you. I, the Lord, have spoken! Yes, I will certainly keep you safe from these wicked men. I will rescue you from their cruel hands." (Jeremiah 15:16-21).

God’s assurance to Jeremiah that He will be with him is the secret of how we can find joy in delighting in God’s will for our lives. Our joy does not depend on what happens to us – on our success or prosperity - but on the glorious riches of the mystery that Christ is living in us giving us the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). It is this mystery that empowers us to find joy in our sorrows, pain, grief and tribulations. Brian McLaren makes the point that "our yes counts most when we receive mistreatments rather than praise for our effort. That's why the theme of suffering for doing good is so central to all our spiritual traditions."

The real message of Advent is that Love came down at Christmas. We are not called to celebrate a “Merry Christmas” but to proclaim the wonderful mystery that Christ has come and is in us so that there will be love, joy and peace in a world that is infected by greed and lust. The season of Advent is a time when we spring clean our hearts so that there will be room for the Christ child to be born in our hearts. It is a time to prepare our hearts so that we can truly sing with our hearts and souls on Christmas Day:

"Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning,

Jesus, to thee be all glory given;

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;

O come, let us adore him

O come, let us adore him,

O come, let us adore him, Christ, the Lord!

Scanning Our Hearts

One of my email accounts was hacked last week. It was an unsettling experience as it reminded me of my vulnerabilities. It also triggered off feelings of guilt that I had not taken adequate protective measures. I installed a new antiviral software and scanned my computer for any worm virus but did not find any.

This experience drew my attention to the reality of evil and spiritual warfare and the critical need for self examination and the discipline of confession. The act of confession is not just to reflect on the things I have done or not done. It is an exercise of “scanning my heart” for the “sin virus” which keeps me from loving the Lord with all my heart and being a child of God. The sin virus drives me to be a G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) in the things I am doing to fulfill my ego needs.

The Word of God teaches us to search our hearts so that we can stand firm against the infection of sin. The truth is that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:10) The prophet Jeremiah warns us of our tendency to turn away from God when we seek to fulfill our selfish human desires:

“This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.”

Such words sound harsh and contrary to our image of God as our loving Heavenly Father. However, we must be careful that our response to such warnings is not like the Jews in the time of Jeremiah:

“Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires.” (Jeremiah 18:11-12 NLT)

Our egocentric desires tend to draw us towards evil and we will then have to face God’s judgment against evil. When we turn away from God, the spiritual darkness will blind us to the evil in the good that we do. In the past, the teaching on the seven deadly sins - pride, anger, lust, greed, gluttony, sloth and envy was taken seriously. But modern society has trivialized these sins. It is therefore not surprising that we are facing doom and gloom in the coming years. The words of the apostle Paul to the Romans still hold true in our times:

“Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. Instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie.“ (Romans 1:21-25)

In Greek mythology, there is the story of Orpheus who overcame the lure of the beauty and seductive voices of the “sirens” who would draw experienced sailors to their deaths by sailing into the dangerous waters and rocks. Orpheus sang more beautifully to drown out the seductive voices of the “sirens.” Drawing a lesson from this story, Alex Tylee made the point that to overcome our bondage to sin and our evil desires, we need to seek God even more strongly. For “if we sing God’s song, then even the most beautiful song of the world will pale into insignificance.”

In this season of Advent, let us practice the discipline of confession so that we can make room in our hearts for God’s song of Love. Self examination and confession is not to feel sorry for our sins to win God's blessings - it is to free our souls from guilt so that we can sing God's song of Love in our lives. Instead of singing, "I did it my way," let us sing, "All The Way My Saviour Leads Me."

The act of confession is to scan our hearts for the sin virus, especially pride, so as to clear our hearts of the virus through God's forgiveness. We will then be empowered to forgive others. Jesus told Simon the Pharisee that those who have been forgiven little show only little love. But those who have experienced forgiveness of their many sins will have greater love in their hearts. (Luke 7:36-50) The good news which Paul shared in his letter to the Romans is that as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. (Romans 5:20)

The reality is that as we seek to love God more we will experience more temptations to keep us from experiencing God's love in deeper ways. But we can use such temptations and tribulations to see that we are spiritually out of shape and to ask God to reshape us. The good news is that God is the Potter and we are only the clay. All we need to do is to turn our eyes upon Jesus so that we will be able to see more clearly how God is transforming the suffering and evil in our lives for His glory.

Let us remember that we have a song to be sung to the nations – a song of love that will lift the hearts of the people to the Lord, a song that will conquer evil and shatter the spear and sword. The good news of Christmas is that God is with us. The challenge before us is to live out this wonderful truth in our moments, days and years so that we can truly sing:

“Joy to the world, the Lord has come!”

Love's Abiding Joy

We are living in an increasingly joyless world. We are surrounded by pleasures of the flesh but our souls are in starvation for love, joy and peace. I was touched by the message from the film, Love's Abiding Joy, which I saw with Mary a few days ago. The subplot was about a rich mayor of a town who convinced a young, well liked and honest man to be the sheriff of the town. His main objective was to use the young man to do the dirty job of evicting those who were not able to repay his loans. He was obsessed with getting as much wealth as he can irrespective of how many livelihoods he destroyed. The film demonstrated the truth that human greed is the most dangerous infection that will destroy the fabric of our human societies.

The main plot was the struggle of the young man and his wife with their grief over the death of their newborn baby. The wife's father had just arrived to see his newborn grand-daughter only to find that she had died in her sleep the next morning. The couple struggled with their faith in God as they sought to find answers for their tragic loss. It was a moving story of how love triumphs in the end over sorrow and greed.

On Sunday, Mrs Persis Lim, in her message at Queenstown Lutheran Church, reminded us of the need to guard our joy. Indeed so many things in life can rob us of our joy if we have the wrong perspective of joy. Joy is not a feeling but, as Mrs Lim pointed out, “the person, purpose, power and plan of God in our lives.’ Indeed as we begin the season of Advent, we are to be the witnesses of the truth that Jesus Christ is the source of our joy. Hence we sing, Joy To The World, The Lord Is Come!”

Joy is not something that happens to us but something that we receive. Mrs Lim touched on the need for “receptive spirituality’ in order to learn how to receive the goodness, mercy and grace of God. John Main made the following observation:

“To live our lives well we don’t need to be depressed by the fact that the world is passing away, that civilizations do crumble. Nor do we need to be disturbed by the fact that the world is often a largely chaotic world.”

He drew attention to the fact that the challenge for each of us is to find true peace, adequate order and harmony in our chaotic world that is passing away. The solution is not to try to “escape the real world of untidy ends and chaotic beginnings” or to “construct an alternative, illusory reality of our own.” Our task is simply to hold Jesus in reverence in our hearts and to build our lives on the rock who is Christ.

The message of our Lord to me this Advent season is to abide in Christ each day so that the words of the psalmist may be real in my life:

“And in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:8)

Let It Be

When I woke up this morning, the words, “Let It Be” came to mind. I realized that it was the title of a Beatle song and decided to google it. The song described how Mother Mary speaks words of wisdom, Let It Be, when one finds oneself in times of trouble. It also expresses the hope that there will be an answer when broken hearted people living in the world agree. For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see that there will be an answer. Furthermore there is a light that shines till the next morning when the night is cloudy and we awake to the sound of music, Let It Be.

The mention of Mother Mary may distract some of us from the truth expressed by the song. The spirit of “Let It Be” teaches us the truth that God is in control. We struggle between wasting time and being “time-obsessed” with productivity. We alternate between feeling guilty about doing nothing to help God answer our prayers and feeling stressed by trying to save the world with our puny human efforts.

The words of Jesus recorded in Matthew11:28-29 comes to mind:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

I felt led to sing the song, changing "Mother Mary" to "my Lord Jesus" as this is more meaningful for me:

“When I find myself in times of trouble, my Lord Jesus comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness He is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be
For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

Jesus is the answer, let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

And when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me
Shine until tomorrow, let it be
I wake up to the sound of music, my Lord Jesus comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be”

The song helped me to remember to rest in the Lord and to watch Him at work – around me, in others and in myself. I have found that when “Let It Be" is the sound of music when I awake, it gave me a sense of peace for the day.

Tuning Our Hearts To Jesus

Learning to play the ukulele gave me an insight into our faith as followers of Christ. Before one can play the ukulele, one must tune the ukulele. I found the following “life shaping” prayer by Paul Wesley Chilcote resonating with my heart:

“GRACIOUS LORD, you sang all that exists into being:

give me a voice to sing your praise in all that I do,

a heart to seek harmony with all your creation,

and a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving

to tune my heart to the keynote of my life,

my Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

For those of us who are not musically endowed, we need a tuner to tune our ukuleles. Likewise, we need the bible to tune our hearts to Jesus Christ who is the keynote of our lives. Another way of tuning the ukulele is to listen to the sound of each string if one has a musical mind. Similarly, we can also tune our hearts by paying attention to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The primary objective of tuning our hearts is to live our lives in the will of God.

Unfortunately, the primary focus of our Christian faith and teaching is skewed towards DOING the will of God instead of BEING in the will of God. The bible tells us very clearly what the will of God is. For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 we read:

“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

On 11 November 2011, Mary and I had to learn to put this teaching into practice. I had gone to the Queenstown Library to borrow a book while Mary waited in the car for me. A few minutes later she heard a cracking sound and found that the window on the driver’s side breaking up for no rhyme or reason. She got out of the car and the whole window broke up and filled the driver’s seat with pieces of glass. It was a totally unexpected and unexplainable event that totally disrupted our lives for the rest of that day. We cannot be thankful FOR what happened. However, it was an opportunity to learn to give thanks IN an adverse situation.

Why do we need to be thankful in all circumstances? Firstly it is to remind us that we are in the midst of a spiritual warfare. Jesus tells us that in this life we will have tribulations - but we can be of good cheer for He has overcome the world. Secondly it is to prepare us for attacks from the evil one. A motorcyclist saw what happened and told us that we were very lucky! He had seen our car number and found that it added to 11 and that day was 11th November. He was noted, which we were not even conscious of, that Mary was wearing a red blouse and I was wearing a red T shirt! He was in effect telling us we are going to strike rich in the 4D lottery! We were tempted to go and buy a 4D ticket. It was a time to stand on the truth that Christ has already won the victory and the battle is not ours but the Lord’s.

Thirdly, it is to remind us of the grace and peace that is to be found in the surrender of all our lives to God. Finally, it is an opportunity to testify and give glory to God for His amazing Love. We were thankful that Mary was unhurt. We were thankful that we were able to drive to the Honda service centre at Mandai and back home in good weather. We were also thankful that the mechanic helped us to clean up the broken glass in the car.

Giving thanks in trying times and difficult circumstances is a simple habit but one that needs faith and practice to cultivate. Tuning a new ukulele can be a problem when we are not familiar with the instrument and we are afraid of breaking the strings. On one occasion I was struggling to tune the ukulele until I realized that I was turning the screw for the wrong string!

The experience taught me to listen to the promises of God by using negative circumstances that steal my joy as opportunities to tune in to joy of our salvation by giving thanks for Christ’s promise that He is with us in all circumstances. Giving thanks does not make one a saint nor is it a formula to get God’s blessings. It is to help us to live our lives from God's perspective so that we will be able to face the storms of life without fear and with the peace that is beyond human understanding. It is to empower us to live with the joy unspeakable and to sing the symphony of God's love with our lives.

Lessons of faith from the ukulele

Learning to play the ukulele gave me new insights about prayer and our life with God. The ukulele is a very simple and portable instrument which helped me "to make a joyful noise and sing for joy to the Lord" in my time of personal meditation.

There are three simple practices one needs to learn in order to play the ukulele. Firstly, it is necessary to tune the ukulele especially when we are playing with others. Secondly, we need to master changing the chords. Thirdly, we need to learn to strum according to the rhythm of the song. Playing the ukulele is simple but not easy. It requires discipline, patience and perseverance. It is easy to learn the first few chords on the ukulele but regular and daily practice is needed if we want to develop these basic chords in order to expand one's repertoire of songs.

As I learnt to play the ukulele, it occurred to me that the six petitions in the Lord's Prayer give us six chords for God's song of grace in our lives. Prayer is more than just singing songs of praise TO God - it is singing WITH God the song of our lives which He has composed. The first three petitions of the Lord’s prayer are the three major “chords” which focuses our attention, firstly, on our identity as the children of God and to honour Him as our Heavenly Father. Secondly, it gives us a vision of God's Kingdom and to enthrone Him as our King. Thirdly, it spells out our mission to be His humble servants to do His divine will and to make Christ the Master of our lives.

The last three petitions are the minor chords which draws our attention to our dependence on God’s providence and to live a life of thanksgiving; our gratitude for God's pardon by living as a forgiven people with a forgiving spirit; and the reality of spiritual warfare and to live under God's protection. The Lord’s Prayer is a simple prayer to help us make a joyful noise to the Lord with our lives.

When we fail to master these six "chords" of God's music for our lives, we end up striving joylessly to work FOR God like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son. We swing between the guilt of not doing enough to earn our salvation and the pride of self righteousness of being "saved" for heaven.

As I learn to play the ukulele, I needed to cultivate the discipline of changing the chords with the right rhythm. In a similiar way, I am learning to "play" the "chords" of the Lord's Prayer so that the joy of our salvation may be seen in me. The Christian life is making a joyful noise in this unhappy and noisy world. We can learn to live according to the strum beat of God's heart rather than the drum beat of our materialistic world.

Richard Foster makes the important distinction between trying hard with the grace of God to practice the discipline of being present to Jesus and trying hard to bear fruit in our own strength. It is only by abiding in Christ that we are set free to bear the fruit of the Spirit.

With Christ we have a symphony of God's Love to be sung to the nations. It is the song that will conquer evil and shatter the spear and sword. It is in the song of praise in our lives that others will see Christ in us and be drawn to Him:

"Praise God with shouts of joy all people! Sing to the glory of his name; offer him glorious praise! Say to God, "How wonderful are the things you do!" (Psalm 66:1-3)

Praising God is something which we all can do even in the autumn or winter of our lives when we have Christ rooted in our hearts. We will not grow old if we "give up singing old dirges and risk living in a new key." So let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing joyful songs of praise with our ordinary and mundane lives!

Living In A Spiritually Flat World

In Psalm 80, the psalmist cried out to the Lord to save his nation and "to restore and smile on us." The sentiments expressed in the psalm echoes what many of us feel when our prayers do not seem to be answered. Some have turned away from God in such times even though it is a time when they need God even more.

The psalmist lived in a time when people believed that the world is flat - the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The earth was the centre of the universe with the sun. moon and stars moving around it. Living in such a world, the people were not able to travel far beyond their homes. It was also inconceivable to them that one can travel round the world.

Their spiritual perspective is that of heaven being above and hell as below. Living with such a perspective, people believe that they need to please God or God would turn away from them. They needed to plead for God to return to them.

However, in our modern world, we have a totally different perspective. We know that the earth is round and that it is revolving and moving round the sun. When the part of the earth is turned away from the sun, there is the darkness of night. When it turns back to face the sun, it has the light of the morning sun. We are aware that we are not the centre of the universe but our earth is but a tiny ball in an universe that we find hard to imagine.

Such knowledge of our physical universe should move us from the concept of living in a "spiritually flat world" where God moves toward or away from us. When we turn away from God in our lives, we will encounter the dark night of our souls. Adverse circumstances, suffering as well as hedonistic pleasures in our lives tend to turn us away from God. It makes no difference to God whether we are turned towards Him or not - but it makes a big difference to us as it determines whether we will be able to have the love, joy and peace that God wants to give us.

The picture of God being in the centre of our lives can help us to understand the discipline of repentance. Repentance is not just feeling sorry for our wrongdoings but a recognition of our need for God and our need to keep turning back to God as the lover of our souls. Difficulties, problems and suffering can become our springs for joy and peace if we use them to seek the grace and love of our Heavenly Father. Such times can be times for the reframing of our minds, the renovation of our hearts and the revival of our souls.

We will experience the joy unspeakable and the peace that surpasses all human understanding when we move from living in a spiritually flat world with magical religious practices to a spiritual world in which Christ is in us our hope of glory. In an Upper Room Reflection, I was reminded that "the heart’s single greatest desire is to listen attentively to the voice of God speaking through scripture, nature, daily events, and the kind of reflection that leads to expanding self-knowledge." It is only when we live such a life that our hearts will have room for God.

So let us cultivate the discipline of solitude, meditating on God's Word and learning to listen to the voice of our Shepherd in prayer.

The Hidden Ways Of God

In the Upper Room devotional on 26th October 2011, the writer drew attention to the importance of silence in our relationships with one another as well as with God. In our increasingly noisy world of easy and instant communication, we tend to see silence in relationships as "a sign of disapproval, rejection, or disinterest."

While this may sometimes be true, we need to understand the value of silence - as a "time out" to draw closer to God so that we can learn to be humble, honest and loving. We need to hear God calling us to a deeper level of intimacy that is beyond words - to be still in order to hear the soft and gentle whispers of His love and grace.

This brings to mind the teaching of Martin Luther of the concept of "Deus absconditus" - the God who is hidden. This is to counter the easier theological teachings that when God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, "everything was inexhaustibly known and available about God."

The theology from Martin Luther's work is to remind us that God's ways will always be a mystery to us. Richard Foster makes the point that "the hiddenness of God" is to increase our awareness to the truth that "God is not at the beck and call of human beings."

We need not be afraid of silence - especially the silence of God. Let us cultivate silence in our lives and to treasure the golden moments of being still in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father.

The Place & Space of God's Kingdom

There were two posters at an exhibition at the National Library last week which caught my eye. One poster posed questions with regard to the concept of "Place":

"Where does "PLACE" begin and end?"

"How much of a "PLACE" is found only in the MIND of the perceived?"

Another poster gave me new thoughts about "Space":

"Space is simultaneously personal, communal and impersonal."

These two posters led me to reflect more deeply on the Kingdom of God. What is our perception of God's Kingdom? Where does God's Kingdom begin and end in our lives? How much of God's Kingdom is found only in our minds?

We limit God's rule when His place in our lives is confined only to our Sunday worship and church activities during the week. Instead of putting on Christ when we leave church we take off Christ and put on the masks of our ego selves.

We are so preoccupied with our pursuit for health, wealth and pleasure that we forget that we are only pilgrims on this earth. We are so earthbound that we are not homesick for heaven. Even as we faithfully pray, "Your Kingdom come," our eyes are not opened to the reality of God's Kingdom in our daily lives in the here and now.

Jesus taught us that God's Kingdom is to be found in our hearts. So often, it is only when we face death that we seek God's Kingdom with all our heart. The good news is that Jesus came to help us to create space in our hearts for God. Like space, prayer is simultaneously personal, communal and impersonal.

We may feel at times feel that prayer is impersonal for we cannot see and hear God. But the hymn, What A Friend We Have In Jesus, teaches us that prayer is personal - and what peace we often forfeit when we fail to bring our concerns to our Lord in prayer. At the same time, prayer is communal as we pray for one another as it links us together in our concerns for one another and the world.

God's Kingdom is the space in our hearts and we need to receive it with the childlike attitude of trust and wonder. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells us very clearly:

“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it” (Luke 18:16-17)

We do not need more faith – we simply need to put whatever faith we have in God. We are to be like children who are able to believe what they cannot understand. Unfortunately, as we grow older, we lose our childlike wonder and we only believe what we can understand. How true it is that there are times when ignorance is bliss! The truth, as stated in the Upper Room devotional today is that “we don’t have to know the how to trust God with the what.”

Our responsibility is to learn to turn our worries, fears and anger to Christ so that we can see our circumstances through God’s eyes and to respond to them in the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead of wasting our energies on trying to increase our faith in human ways, we are called to discover the movements of God in our daily and ordinary lives so that we can experience and enjoy His agape love. We will be filled with the inexpressible joy of our salvation when we submit to God’s reign in our lives by seeking to love Him more as our Heavenly Father instead of busying ourselves trying to win points to please Him.

Heaven - God's Dream For Us

Our images and concepts of heaven play a very critical role in how to live our Christian faith as well as how effective we are as witnesses of the love and grace of God.

The parable of the prodigal son shows us that some of us may chose to leave heaven only to find ourselves in the hell of a hedonistic and materialistic lifestyle. On the other hand, some of us are living in the hell of a religious legalistic lifestyle even though we claim to worship God as our Heavenly Father.

Jesus came to seek the lost and to heal those who are sick. His sternest criticisms were directed towards the Pharisees who claim to know God but fail to do the will of God.

The good news is that Jesus came to show us that life is a life of love. We are the children of a loving Heavenly Father. The story of our lives and of our human history is the love story of God in creation.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, He taught them the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer that reminds us that life is all about God’s Kingdom and His providence. At the same time, we need to recognize the importance of forgiveness and the reality of evil.

The Lord’s prayer encapsulates our mission to bring heaven on earth and share the wonderful message of God’s love for all mankind. When we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by Your name, we are to remember that our fellow human beings are God’s children.

In a book for children, God’s Dream, Bishop Desmond Tutu described God’s dream as being about people sharing and caring for one another. He made the point that each of us carries a piece of God’s heart within us – and when we love one another, the pieces of God’s heart are made whole.

Making God’s dream is simple – as easy as sharing, loving, caring, playing and laughing – when we see one another as all God’s children. But it is difficult if not impossible if we try to do so without dealing with our pride, prejudices, unforgiveness, and greed.

Our responsibility is simply to pay attention to what our Heavenly Father is saying to us each day in the people we meet and the circumstances we face each day. The good news from the psalmist is that our Heavenly Father watches over us when we put Him first in our lives. He rescues us from the death of lives of futility and provides us with we need even in times of scarcity. (Psalm 33:18-19)

Let us give the first place in our lives to God so that there will be space in our hearts for His amazing love.