No strength, no power, no king, but wise

God often surprises me with something I never thought of. Many Christians have read their Bibles many times over. And surprisingly God has always something new everytime we open up our Bibles. And tonight is just one of those moments.

I was reading from Proverbs 30, about the 4 animals that are described as small and yet they’re exceedingly wise. Here the reading:

the ants are a people not strong,
yet they provide their food in the summer;

the rock badgers are a people not mighty,
yet they make their homes in the cliffs;

the locusts have no king,
yet all of them march in rank;

The questions that came to me were something like,”so how does it look like for the ants?” They’re not strong like lions or tigers who could hunt their preys when they’re hungry. Therefore they took long time and long plannings to get their food. They’re not in the business of fast return? They foresee to the future needs and busy spending their time preparing. These are “not strong” (whatever strength physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, etc) people. Therefore they prepared long in advance to make up for their “weakness” or “smallness”. These are wise people. They’re not strong, but they’re definitely wise. They get their food just as the strong. They survive by their wisdom. But they plan far ahead.

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The wisdom of God and the foolishness of man

This morning I listened to yet another AI talk. It sounds interesting and packed with quotations from great people of the past like Aristotle. At the heart of the talk, is this quest to define the meaning of “human”. Borrowing from my memory, the questions thrown to us along this line,”are we human because our capabilities? Or are we human because we think, therefore we are? How about babies, are they human? Are we human because of our body parts? How much can we modify our bodies and remain human?”

I know it may sounds very silly to some of you. It went on to quiz us with pictures and we were asked to vote “human” or “non human”. I wrote a comment that my toddler were able to answer that question easily. I was amused with how many people felt enlighthened by such discussion, but I left feeling sad and troubled.

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All Sufficiency of God

Today would be one of those unforgettable lessons the Lord taught me. For I was expecting my girl to perform solo in a masterclass.

There was really an annoying event leading to today, that the confirmation email stated a different date than the performance date. And there is no contact number / email to clarify. When I left a note on the website, no reply came to me. So we decided to go there yesterday anyway, and there was nobody in the place. The security person that said wanted to open the door for us didn’t even turn up. Thank God for someone who came and entered, so we could follow (bad security of the building). So we went home tired & disappointed. We cheered ourselves by saying that probably it’s good idea to check the place before the big day.

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God our Refuge

This morning I continue with my meditation on 2 Kings 6 : 8-17, focusing on the following verses:

 So he (King of Syria) sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city. ...
And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

What a dramatic story. It depicts the terror of the young man to find in the morning that they’re going to be attacked and it’s unavoidable. A great army with horses & chariots against ordinary people. “What shall we do under such dire situation?”

In contrast, God’s prophet was very calm and undisturbed with what’s going on. Whom you could identify yourselves more with? The fear-stricken young servant or the calm old prophet?

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God our Refuge?

This week I heard twice (at different occasions) the saying,”right belief would lead to right living”. In my opinion, it depends on how well the belief received in the heart. Just to illustrate my point with this objective truth.

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

Psalm 46:1-2 (NIV)
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Good Old friends are like Gems

Because my google storage is almost full and I refused to pay to upgrade, I left with only 1 choice. That’s to clean up my space!!

In the process, I discovered many interesting stuff. Our old photographs, the hard works done together in serving the Lord, many beautiful memories, and ….. I just thought to get these 2 lessons:

  1. Good friendships and the hardships we endured together
  2. Sufferings & hardships could be transformed by God’s grace to produce eternal beauty
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The wisdom of God vs the foolishness of Man

The Bible is very direct when it talks about the heart.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer 17:9)

Above everything else guard your heart, because from it flow the springs of life. (Prv 4:23)

That’s just two verses which my focus to show what God says about human’s heart. That it’s deceitful, but it needs to be guarded / watched.

Wisdom is to accept what He says as truth. While foolishness of man is to think that we know better than God, and that we don’t need to accept what He says.

How does wisdom affect our lives?

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Chariots & Horses

The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them, slain, over to Israel. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.”

Joshua 11:6

I was reading and meditating on the book of Joshua this year. I find the above commands from the Lord interesting. God gives different commands to Joshua at different times (to circle wall of city, to burn city, to kill everyone, to destroy everything, to circumcise the people, to distribute the land, to cast lot, etc). And here is another command of the Lord.

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Friend of the Bad Guy

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Acts 13:1 (ESV)

The description “a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch” caught my eyes. Who is this Herod the tetrarch? Tetrarch is title for governor of fourth of province (ruler of a quarter). So he is a ruler with big authority during Roman’s rule. But there were many Herods mentioned in the Bible. Which Herod is this one?

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God is Faithful (to His promises) & Wise (how to keep it)

For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. So he raised up their sons in their place, and these were the ones Joshua circumcised.

Joshua 5:...
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