Miaowkat's Blog

All your travels you would try
To be like the special guy
To sit inside the cockpit zone
But now you have wings of your own 

Up and away in the sky
Till the plane could not spy
You travel as the wind has blown
But now you have wings of your own 

Your dream was to once more fly
In the plane that often ply
Between near here and far from home
But now you have wings of your own 

Now you have the best one could vie
No money or wealth could ever buy
Blessed and secured at the heavenly throne
Because Jesus gave you wings of your own 

For Lim Tow Yen
30 Aug 2019
In memory of a special friend.

The Old Testament has many wonderful stories that reveal a treasure of God’s truths and the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is one of these.

It is a powerful story about how faith and obedience are central in a believer’s life. And the Bible’s account is significant for two reasons; firstly because it was “multi-miraculous”, if there is such a word, and secondly, because, irregardless of the result, they chose to trust and believe in the Most High God.

The story set in Daniel chapter 3, where the Israelites have been captive in Babylon and the ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar, had passed a law for everyone to worship a great statue of himself, and failure to comply will result being thrown into a furnace of fire.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow to the king’s statue and were brought in for questioning before Nebuchadnezzar, to whom, gave the 3 friends a chance again to bow before the statue.

Faith, faithfulness and fearless

The next part is when the 3 friends replied the king, and is what, I think, is the key moment where faith and faithfulness were expressed in one statement, to the point where they were fearless.

“If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.””

Daniel 3:17-18 ESV

Here are some precious truths which makes this account so remarkable and “multi-miraculous”:

1. They stood up against falsehood; they said no to the statue and to idolatry. (vs. 12)
2. They proclaimed their faith in God to save them. (vs. 17)
3. They chose to worship God alone, no matter the outcome. The result was not important to them, only their obedience to serve God. (vs. 18)
4. They were tied up and cast or thrown into the furnace; you would be physically hurt in some way if you were bound and thrown but they were not. (vs. 20)
5. When God leads you through a fire, it’s not to burn you, but your captors and enemies (vs. 22)
6. God sometimes makes us go through the fire instead of putting it out. And when He does, He appears to everyone in the fire with us. He will be the “fourth man” in the fire with us. (vs. 25).
7. They were unhurt from the fire and even recorded as without a trace of burn smell. It is amazing that the writer recorded this in order to give us the level of protection these men received. (vs. 27)
8. Their faithfulness resulted in the King’s change of heart (vs. 28)

If it hasn’t already, this account should revolutionalise your view of God and our trials. God’s plan is sovereign over our wish of how the outcomes should be. Remember Jesus Himself said to the Father, “not my will but yours be done!”

God said, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

Isaiah 43:2 ESV

Notice the Bible doesn’t say if you pass through the waters; it says when you pass through the waters. You will have troubles throughout life but fear not! Jesus will always walk through with you.

This is a reference to an interesting song that we sang for a friend’s wedding. The link to the original blog post is below. Enjoy.

Bone Of My Bone, Flesh Of My Flesh

(Based on Genesis 2:23)

Chords: I-VI-IV-V

[Verse 1]:
Walking down the Garden one day
God said to Man
You need some help my friend
Let me give you a hand
So He made man sleep
And performed surgery
And when man awoke
He gasped!… and then he spoke
(He said)

[Chorus]:
Bone of my bone
Flesh of my flesh
You shall be called, ‘Wo-oh-man’
You’ll be, bone of my bone
Aa-and flesh of my flesh
You shall be called…
‘Woh-oh-oh-oh-man!’

[Verse 2]:
One-of-the many blessings of God
One-of-His curses too
They will make you happy or sad
It’s up to you
If you feed her well
And you treat her nice
There’ll be har-mo-ny
In this fa-mi-ly

(Then she’ll be)… [Chorus]

[Verse 3]:
Condominium, credit card
Cold ha-ard cash
Big automatic car
Or a Mercedes Benz
If you give her these
She will give you peace
Then you’ll have a say
For just one more day

[Chorus]

—

This song was written during a very interesting semester at a Bible school that I was attending for a while. I wrote it along with a good friend who is getting married in September this year (2002). I’m sure he’ll tell his wife that this is just an example of the folly of youth. I added the first verse later, as I thought it would be nice to set up the background for the song. It just goes to show that Christians (or at least, some of us) can have a (warped) sense of humour sometimes!

Copyright © May 16, 1998, Wong Giok Leigh and Bryan Mak Wai Toh. All rights reserved.

Keywords: woman

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered”, Hebrews 5:8

THE CHESS EXAMPLE

It’s like you’re good at a skill, like playing chess. And your father comes along to say, you’ve never played against a super-computer before. And you challenge a super-computer at chess, while at the same time, getting the audience murmur at you, ridicule you, throw stones at you and you manage to beat the computer! Now your chess skill is not just good, but now your skill has been tested and you’re really good!

PIANO EXAMPLE

Or you’re really good at piano. And your father comes along with a difficult piece that you’ve never practiced before, but you play it perfectly, without a single mistake, in front of an audience of thousands and uploaded on Youtube! Now, your piano skill is not just good anymore, now it’s good, tested and everyone can testify to it.

SWIMMING EXAMPLE

Or you’re a very good swimmer. And one day, you become a lifeguard at Sunway Lagoon, or “Bethlehem” Lagoon. And in your job everyday you save people from drowning. And you do your job really well, not one person has drowned since you joined, despite your 12 colleagues doubting you, despite other department heads trying to find ways to get you fired, despite the everyday crowd ridiculing and insulting you for the way you swim. And you ask your father, how do I do this job of saving people? Without allowing all this to affect me? And without making a mistake? And one day you give your life up, whilst  saving everyone in the waterpark. Your life-saving skill is now, not just good, but it has been tested, tried and you came out victorious.

That is exactly what Hebrews 5:8 means when it says, “Jesus learned obedience”.

Jesus, though already perfect and sinless, learned something whilst being in a human body. Every moment of His lifelong learning as a human, especially at the last 3 years of His life on earth, was: Can I endure this temptation to give up? Can I endure suffering in the form of physical and mental torture? from the very creation I love, and still be obedient and do my Father’s will? Without complaint or murmuring. Something never done before by anyone in the universe. And the answer of Hebrews is yes! He could and He did. He learned obedience in what He suffered, He gave His life for it, and He never failed in the process of perfect learning, proven, tested obedience!

It was the night before race submission and I had finished 2 pinewood derby cars for my two older boys, or at least I thought so, when suddenly something prompted to check the car specification guidelines once more…

And there it was one of the cars was over the width limit by 2mm. Then I thought I’d just give the weight a test just to be sure and to my horror it was also 1/2 an ounce overweight.

How could this be I thought? Then I realised that I might have earlier weighed the car in a manner which gave me a different reading, since the car’s weight was off balance towards one end.

So I started with the alignment and then it was done. Then I thought how about if I chip away some wood from under the car to help it loose some weight and I started on that.

I had just about finished carving a boxed section from the underneath when I lifted it and one of the main decorative accessories dropped off! Ok the more I made modification, the more damages happened in other areas. I fixed the accessory and then realised my hands had accidentally shifted the wheel alignments again.

I thought to myself, it’s getting better late but I have to do it for my son. This was my second son’s car. I thought to myself, how interesting that the car and this son had so much parallel; both gave so many problems in so many areas of behaviour; both didn’t seem to want to cooperate; both had trouble getting to meet a certain specification or standard…

So I was doing all I could to make it work for the car and my son! As fast as possible! If I couldn’t get the car to meet specifications, the car could not enter the race and he’d be disappointed.

It was at that point I realised the frailty and imperfections we have as parents, or rather, I have as a dad. We try so hard to fix our kids. We want them to be good. We want them to be hardworking. And we do all we can for them. “It’s for their own good”, we say. “I just want them to have the best”.

But the moment we get one area of their life fixed, one struggle finally overcome, one difficulty met with success, we come up with another area that, like the car, that either we neglected or mishandled.

I think it is the reality, we focus so much on their studies they neglect church service, or focus too much on church service we neglect family life, or we focus on family life but did not give opportunity for them to make friends, or allow them to make friends and overlooked good behavior. And we have not even put the child’s temperament into the equation. It goes on and on, you get the point.

To achieve balance in all areas in a child’s life is so extremely difficult. Mental-spiritual-social balance, or a work-play-family balance… I think I know one or two parents who do that but if I really scrutinise, I can find some area they’ve overlooked.

Really the only one who can make this come together for a child is God the Father. We try all kinds of techniques to fill the lack in their lives, or to help them overcome certain habits, or to have success in difficulties they face, but the moment we focus on one area, like the car, something else goes on. We are just not “car” professionals. We are just not child professionals. That is when I realised God revealing a truth to me.

That God, in His perfect, loving and divine character has PATIENCE. A holy and pure and perfect PATIENCE. 

His patience with us gives Him the perfect timing and ability to deal with every area of our life, every shortcoming, and meet all the “specifications” correctly, without neglecting or overseeing all the other aspects of our life. THAT is something no one on earth can do.

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands. (Psalms 138:8 NKJV)

Blessed Father’s Day.

~~~

Shortened Version

Working on the Derby car has thought me a lesson. When I was working to perfect one area of the car I may have neglected or accidentally damaged another part.

For example, while trying to chip away the wood I made the decoration drop off. Or while I was trying to glue the axle I accidentally glued the wheel as well. Or while I was adding glue and paint, I didn’t realise that I was adding weight to the car to make it overweight.

I think this reflects our parenting as human fathers. The moment we try to perfect one area of our child’s life, we either neglect, or worse, damage another area of our child’s life.

We focus so much on their studies that we neglect their spiritual life. We focus too much on correcting behaviour we forget to love them. We try to fill a certain lack in their lives or to overcome a habit, and we neglect their overall wellbeing. Just as we are not “car” professionals, we just are not child professionals. 

That is when I realised God revealing a truth to me. Really the only one who can make this all come together for a child is God the Father. That God, in His loving character has a type of PATIENCE that is perfect PATIENCE. 

His patience with us gives Him the perfect timing and ability to deal with every area of our life, every shortcoming, and meet all the “specifications” correctly, without neglecting or overseeing all the other aspects of our life. THAT is something no one on earth can do.

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands. (Psalms 138:8 NKJV)

Blessed Father’s Day.

—

The LORD will work out his plans for my life— for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me. (Psalms 138:8 NLT)