2014 was my Holy Bible Year

2014 was a great year for me. I managed to move jobs and had a fruitful first 180 days in my new post. My eldest daughter got baptized into Christianity by a CCF pastor.  I have grown closer to my nieces, who from before were behaving a bit uneasy and distant in my presence. I also managed to complete my York Rite masonic studies and gained the Knight Templar degree. Likewise I completed my 4th to 30th degrees and got me into a position of achieving my 32nd degree in Scottish Rite Masonry this January.

But if there is one thing that really made 2014 great, it is the fact that I managed to read the Holy Bible from cover to cover in 12 months. It was an uphill battle in most times, but the struggle were all worth it. It helped a lot that my wife gave me a Ipad Mini for Christmas in 2013, and having downloaded a copy of the Bible, it was quite good to have it easily accessible when caught in slow moving traffic in the morning and early evening. It got to a point when I felt that the traffic jams were blessings. It became my signal to read (with the formula from Pastor Peter Tanchi in mind) my daily dose of 5 chapters of scriptures. True enough, when December came, I was just about at the start of the Book of Revelations. What a great blessing!

Having read the Bible from Genesis to Revelations, I now have a clearer grasp of how a Christian life is not and will never be a stroll in the park, or a bike ride along the boulevard. I now clearly see with 20-20 vision that it is a walk in the jungle, where you do not really see what lies ahead. there may be steep ravines, wild beasts, foggy terrain and what have you. And by our own physical and mental prowess there is no way we could walk that path on our own. We have to  keep our eyes on the Shepherd.

And while this walk in the jungle may be a scary proposition, we need not be unhappy and scared and stressed out. We are supposed to walk in faith, and trust the Shepherd. For our own happiness springs eternal in His glory.
 

Wait for it...Wait for it...

Yesterday was a great day. We had a guest (albeit via recorded video) speaker from Singapore, a warm fellow who goes by the name of Pastor Edmund Chan. He spoke mostly about the Book of Samuel, but took us through a new way of feeling the vibrancy of the narrative. What a treat.

The most important thing I learned from his exposition of Samuel was that it is important to be cognizant of the tension, the tone, the twist, and the theology when reading the Bible. In Samuel, everyone in attendance was taken through how the Ark of the Covenant was taken away from the hands of the Hebrews (in great anguish and defeat) by the Philistines. I could imagine that if I was part of the Hebrew people back then, this would be the single, most devastating news that would send everyone running back to bed and assuming a fetal position. I would probably just lie there until the day I die.

But (wait for it, wait for it...), a twist occurred.

The next chapters took us through the punishment that God brought down (tumors and infestations) to any Philistine city that hosted the Ark. To a point that city dwellers refused to receive the Ark into their city walls having heard of what happened to the first host cities.

At some point, the Philistines decided to find a way to return the Ark to the Hebrews.

Listening to and enjoying Pastor Edmund's talk, I thought about my own struggles. Sometimes I feel that my Christian walk becomes quite taxing. I would wake up everyday trying to be the person I know I must become; emulating Christian traits that I hope one day would become me.  And yet, rather than feel myself advance, I see myself walking sideways and backwards, even if at times  I do find myself making some good steps forward. I want to give my best to God, but lately I feel stagnating. The view ahead had been the same for a long while. It had been like riding a bus and looking out the window, and for hours and hours you can only see the same tree, or the same goat and the same mountain behind it.

I went to last Sunday's service in CCF feeling drained and tired. I had been waiting, and waiting for something that would change my window view. I was deep inside about to run to my bed and assume a fetal position. And then the twist happened. Pastor Edmund Chan happened.

He said that the only answer to the question of why don't we not give our best to God and for God, is that...WE CANNOT. By ourselves, and with our own power, we simple do not have the capability. We succumb to the first appearance of temptation because by ourselves we are imperfect. But the twist is that GOD CAN. So if we surrender ourselves again and again to Him in our moments of weakness and struggle and stagnation, He will see us through.

Now I know I just need to find more quiet time and stop relying on myself. I need to surrender those little things that seem too little, but are actually in the aggregate taking me away from Him. What could these little things be? I will name one and for sure no one will disagree.

X-Box.