Defeating Temptations

Temptation cannot be defeated by denying its delights
but rather by displacing it with something more delightful.

Sin

Sin mars both the sinner and the sinned.

The sinned cries for justification, the sinner lives under a burden of unrighteousness.

The sinned can forgive the sin, but he remains unjustified; and the sinner cannot be unburdened from the unrighteousness, until he acknowledges not only the sin but the forgiveness too.

But when sinned forgives and sinner repents, only then is perfection restored, and reason for being for both sinned and sinner renewed and resumed.

Amen

Amen means 'So be it'.

Said as a response it means accepting and acceding to whatever was said.

And mostly people now say it mechanically, ritualistically, and even foolishly, without any understanding of the meaning and import of concurrence by saying Amen.

And also we say Amen to only what we think is true and what we know, and maybe what we want to hear. Will we say Amen to something strange and painful?

Jacob and his sons took many many years before they could accept Joseph's dreams. They could not say Amen to God's revelation that they shall bow down to Joseph.

They cannot say Amen to that.

They cannot accede to the revealed will of God. They are unable to accept that somehow in the great mystery, wisdom and power of God, this was designed for their good and that it is the best thing that can happen to them.

Rather than see in the dream as God taking power - a power that does not respect kin - and giving it to Israel, they only interprete it in their selfish and limited context of familial politics.

And they turned jealous and themselves coveted the very power. Their sin have blinded them - and us too if we were in their shoes then, and now - and they are unable, or unwilling, to see beyond the obvious and ponder on the mystery and wisdom of God.

It was only after Joseph have demonstrated and exerted his power over them - a power that is able to destroy them totally, but in Joseph, has no such intent, but instead to be used unreservedly for their good - that Jacob and his sons realised the wisdom of God, and bowed down to Joseph, ruler of Egypt, in Amen.

Jesus said to him (Thomas), “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are the people who have not seen and yet have believed.”

[John 20:29] (NET Bible)

Footnote: Another view on 'What is Amen?'

A Word

God gave me one word.

The word is 'Joseph'.

It have been almost a month since, but the word remained very hard.

I've chewed and chewed on it but it has yet to exhaust its nourishment.

And I think I have only been nibbling on morsels.

God Be With You

Whatever may happen, indeed God can make it for good. But we can be assured of this only if we know - as evidenced by the other things in our life - that God is with us.

So in the times when Joseph was a slave, a servant, and a prisoner, God was with him throughout, and is evidenced in those whom he was slave, servant and prisoner to.

The morsel here is that although things around us may be painful, perplexing and unjust, we can take comfort and be assured, if we know for sure that God is with us.

Imprisoned By Lies

Joseph was thrown into prison for Potiphar's wife lied about him. And there was nothing Joseph can do about it. The lie had absolute control over him.

There are situations in my life where I too am imprisioned by lies - lies I can do nothing about and lies which everyone involved know they are lies, but yet are compelled, for one reason or another, to live and propagate the lie, and you suffer unjustly for it.

God's Inscrutable Way

God's plan for young tribe of Israel was most amazing, most unimaginable, namely to make Egypt, the reigning super power in the world then, to protect and nurture Israel until it was a powerful and big nation.

If Israel did not have Egypt to feed and protect them, they could possibly be annihilated by the wicked neighbours they had in Canaan. But to use Egypt itself as the very means to raise up Israel is something beyond the wildest human imagination.

And could God have revealed such a plan to Jacob? Why didnt God do so? Why did God let Jacob suffer in anguish and great sorrow to live with the thought that Joseph have died? Alas this morsel is hard to chew.

God's Will: The Great Famine

The issue whether humans have free will or not, is hard to discern, but surely we know that whatever I will can be thwarted or frustrated - or helped along, for that matter - by another person, intentionally or otherwise, with an equally free will.

And God is such a third party too. He too has free will. So men can all will and do as they wished, but they can in no way deny God the very same thing.

And God can will and make famines, and tsunamis, and economic collapse, etc etc. But the question is again, why this way and not another?

But this is again a hard thing to think. It requires peering into the mind of God Himself, and I cannot see with any clarity yet.

What I can see is that God uses that which is humanly natural, such as hunger, to make things happen, as in Jacob - and his cruel sons - to turn and submit to Eqypt for food. Further the famine certainly had a devastating effect on the very existence of the nations in the world then, surely even to make some extinct, just as we see today in the famine in Niger.

A Living Tree

I cried to God to hear Him and He showed me a tree.

The tree was flowering. It had beautiful magenta flowers.

I have passed the spot many times, but this was the first time I noticed it.

And it was abuzz with life.

A little yellow bird, with a beak that looks like a hummingbird's but not with its hovering capabilities. Instead it had to perch on a branch to reach the nectar within the flowers.

Then there were at least five big, fat, black bumble bees darting from flower to flower. And there was also the odd butterfly coming in and out of sight from between the dense canopy of leaves that made the tree.

And there are wasps and other tiny flying insects too small for the eye to discern.

But you know these tiny flying things were insects and not drifting dust, as their zipping through the leaves, branches and flowers, can be attributed with purpose and will.

And I think the wasp was trying to find a home amongst the green tender branches. And I am sure that there are ants, beetles, worms and many other kinds of life all over the tree that I cannot see.

So the tree is a home and gives food to a multitude and a myriad of birds and insects and other plants too.

The tree, unmoving and silent, but yet giving shade, beauty and life to man and animals.

And for this species of tree, it is most pleasurable to see when it is in full bloom. For then the whole tree seems to be nothing but flowers.

And it was only one tree in the midst of a clump of them, of various species.

I realised the tree was there as it was planted by men.

It was planted amongst the other trees, evenly-spaced and in rows, but then you hardly notice this 'design' of men any longer, for the life of the tree overwhelms the scene. The fact that it could not be there, if not for the works of men, seems irrelevant. Rather the vitality of the tree seems to demand its very existence, and that it was not men who made the tree happen, but the tree that made men plant it there.

The scene reaffirmed a thought I had earlier when I was watching monkeys play in a huge tree at a reservior. And this was that some of us are to be like trees: silent, strong, unassuming, giving shelter, food, and comfort to others: many others and of all kinds. Whereas some of us are like the monkeys, the birds, the butterflies and the bees: active, moving, eye-catching, and seemingly life itself. But really life requires both, and life is not what it seems to be.

I do not know the full message in this sight, but what I know is that it took away the pain and the cry in my heart, and took my spirit into a flight of beauty and life. I was comforted, I forgot the pain, and I am able to take delight in God and His creation.

And as I stood and watch, the more I see; and the more I see, the more I am rooted. For example I noticed the beauty of a branchful of large somewhat circular leaves, perfectly and symmetrically distributed along a row, seemingly floating in the air, and ending in a cluster of flowers in various stages of blossoming and decay.

But I cannot stay there the whole day and it was with some reluctance that I moved off eventually.

So like Job who never knew why God made him suffer - Job was never told about the 'politics' in heaven between God and Satan - but nonetheless was comforted when God showed him who God is and revealed to him God's power, perfection and majesty, in His creation, so was I comforted.

And although God did not answer me directly the thing that pains me, yet I was comforted, and revived to live life, and to take heart and hope in whatever little that I can do, and to be able to write this blog.