“Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.”I started to realize that this is something real, that some of the youth knows a lot about the Lord.
But do not know the Lord.
If you’re wondering what is the difference between the first and the second line, there’s a huge difference with just one word. Knowing someone and knowing about someone has the big difference of a personal relationship built.
When I was much younger at Sunday school, I experienced the exact same thing. I was told that there is a God, I am actually “forced” to sing and dance along during worship but deep down, I do not feel this God, I do not hear His voice and He is something that is totally alien to me.
But that was back then; my mind was only like a child, how could I reason? How could I possibly fathom the deep and profound truths about this God that life could get an answer from?
Then came a time when I was in form 4, life biggest issues flooding my mind. What is life all about? Why do we live in pain and suffering, injustice and the social imbalance in societies?
Why am I not as talented or as physically attractive like the most popular guy in class A? Why can’t I study as well as the my childhood friend who only tries barely half as hard?
These are things not books, computer games and television programmes could answer. It’s a void of self discovering and also discovering the totality of the world. I was no longer interested in the hows or whats, but simply whys!
And then suddenly, the knowledge of all that I’ve learned from Sunday school about this God who is so great and so Almighty came back. And I was thinking could this be, the answer I was looking for? The answer that not only answers my life, but answers life.
But I was afraid to believe in such a thing. To me, it’s stupidity, it’s blind, it’s foreign.
So I kept asking questions, questions after questions about this God. From my classmates to schoolmates to youth leaders to even elders from church! Daryl who is my twin brother has already committed his life to the Lord then, I “followed” thinking that I didn’t want to be separated from my twin brother then. Little did I realize, I hadn’t even commit my life at all. I only abided the Christian biblical principles of “Thou shall nots..”.
But I have completely no idea what God wants me to do, where He wants me to go and who must I meet.
But came one day, God spoke about something I must let go through a youth leader, and that point of time, I was with my girlfriend then but we were definitely on the wrong path because her parents were against us being together, and obviously, I was way too young and immature to start one.
I refused to listen; I refused to think that God would want that - I wanted my way. Deep down, I knew it was wrong, but I covered with so much excuses and justification, I just needed to live with conscience of me going the right path.
True enough, we ended up broken and I’ve wrecked so much damage in so many individuals. I was in a mess and my life was somewhere I thought I could never go on. I placed so much of myself in that relationship, I just don’t know how go on anymore. But the greatest thing happened, and God told me this, “while you were a sinner, I died for you.”
Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”And He did, He sent my twin brother then to support me all the way through, emotionally and prayerfully. He sent many individuals to listen out to my deepest pain and suffering to keep cheering me on and again, to pray for me. And then finally, God’s voice became clear ever since that day. I knew what He wanted me to do, I knew where He wanted me to go and He has been my shepherd ever since.
Yes, I still have my arguments with Him, I wrestled with Him like how Jacob did but many are the times I also learnt to submit and remember, His ways and His thoughts are far superior and far greater than mine.
Isaiah 55:8
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.”I want to ask you who is reading this, do you know God? Or do you know about God?
If you’re still doing things because you “should”, you may be dangerously on the line of knowing about Him. The problem about that is, you may drop out of your faith eventually because you’re not living your life for someone, you’re living your life based for your own conscience sake like I did once.
If you’re still going to church and have completely no idea why you’re doing there, please I urge you, don’t waste your time by continuing that. Ask questions, start thinking about whys, get to know Him and stop knowing about Him. Why is it that you’re suffering privately at your own home or room, or even at school and you’re wondering why this happening to you, why no one cares and then here you are at a place where people are singing to you, God cares, God cares so much that He died for you!
It is as though you’re so hungry and there’s a plate of a superbly sumptuous meal right in front of your eyes and yet, you are more bothered to whine and complain about how hungry you are than to lift your hands to start gobbling down that plate of meal!
I’m challenging you to take the leap of faith, to pray to this God that you want to live your life according to His ways, that you understand that life has no meaning if its only all about you.
Why do you think the world is such a tough place to live anyway? Because everyone thinks life is about themselves!
- Gary Heng
http://www.earthlight.org/library/vision_stmt_2005.html
http://www.fredvanlente.com/cthulhutract/
http://yourchosenpath.blogspot.com/
http://nhop.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/right-belief-clear-conscience/
http://www.bestasianfood.net/2011/06/lunch-at-food-gallery.html
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