Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Lost Generation
Just felt so much pain and sadness when I read about the people killed in the earthquake. Yesterday, while reading about a 40+ years old man who had lost his teenage daughter... just felt so deeply moved that tears came to my eyes.
John 11:32-35
32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34"Where have you laid him?" he asked.
"Come and see, Lord," they replied.
35Jesus wept.
I was asking God, "God, why did You allow all these people to die? Innocent young children... an entire generation wiped out... all the people weeping and mourning... and the anguish of parents knowing they have lost their one and only child...
Lord, if you had been here..."
But through the above Scripture, I realise that the Father is deeply filled with compassion, and the Son has wept, and the Spirit is deeply moved.
The Father understands what it is like to lose a son, for His one and only son was mangled on the cross.
The Son understands what it is like to lose a dear friend, for He wept over Lazarus' death.
The Spirit understands what it is like to have no words left to speak, for He pleads for us with groans that words cannot express.
The Lord really understands. He does.
I was reflecting after that. There was this quote by a 24-years old man, Song Jian, who escaped with his life and nothing else except the clothes on his back. He said simply: "Being alive is the greatest wealth anyone can have."
Rich or poor, we all will experience pain and grief - and we can never escape that truth. (Ironically, Gautama (the founder of Buddhism), if I remember my history correctly, died in pain from food poisoning. I'm not sure how he handled it - probably as stoically as possible, but the fact is that he most likely died in pain. You can't ever escape suffering's reality, as long as you're in this world.)
That is why people need the Gospel - that there is a hope that lies beyond the grave.
Burma 'guilty of inhuman action'
And felt so much anger at the incompetent and arrogant government of Myanmar. I was in Peninsula Plaza yesterday, and happened to pass by a Myanmar cafe. I saw a man and a woman standing at the door of the restaurant, gesticulating loudly to the crowd, who was paying attention to them. Though I couldn't understand their language, I felt a general sense of silent anger, frustration and depression welling up in the sombre room.
Thank God for Peter who has inspired me to have a godly sense of anger towards injustice and unrighteousness. He didn't explicitly teach this heart attitude to me, but I saw how he feels deeply whenever he sees cases of social injustice and so on. It IS good to be angry for the right reasons - for our God is a righteous Judge...
Psalm 7:11
God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.
He is full of wrath towards the injustice that He sees daily, and I can be certain that His blood is boiling when He sees the blatantly uncaring attitude of the ungodly junta. Surely He will bring justice to these evildoers sooner or later!
But thank God for the Chinese Government. Especially Premier Wen Jiabao caring for the people. Though of course the propaganda ministry will be more than happy to show him doing so, somehow I just see the compassion in his eyes - you can't fake them. Somehow I have the feeling that a hundred years from now, the names of the Presidents will be long forgotten, consigned to history's dust, but Premier Wen's name will be studied as a case study of a good man who cared for the people under his rule.
"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people."
Talking about social justice, I think we shouldn't invest in any commodities that trade in food or oil prices. Otherwise we will be guilty of the crime of feeding on the poor.
A banker in the Straits Times tried to justify these possible increases by saying that the increases due to speculation and investment in these food and oil commodities are less than that due to demand and supply.
But do we really need to make prices even one cent higher for the poor?
The rich seek to make a killing by cashing in on these commodities. But are we not in danger of killing the poor then?
And it's so SICK that rich oil cartels have been hoarding oil... for God's sake, the world needs oil to manufacture fertilizers to grow food!
Let's honour God by giving to the poor - you can do it by contributing to World Vision or Red Cross or UNICEF... just pick a good charity! Especially at a time like this when millions are in danger of starvation and/or absolute poverty.
James 4:13-5:6
13Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.
Finally got all these thoughts off my chest. I think have to... it's important to be willing to speak up for social justice as Christians, lest we start getting all comfortable and cohabit with the world's values...
Let's pray in the end, 'cos when we pray, the hands of God move in ways we cannot see. For example, a few days after House of Prayer, when we prayed for God to soften the hearts of the oil cartels to increase their oil supplies, the news reported that they were considering doing so a few days after we prayed.
And when we prayed that the Myanmarese govt would wake up its ideas and start accepting foreign aid, it has now started doing so... a bit.
WE NEED TO PRAY MORE! The spiritual forces of evil are very, very, very strong in the top echelons of this junta...
And let's pray for our own governments, wherever we are.
Let's pray to God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
That reminds me. We need to be more concerned about social justice in our own homes too. For the maids too.
I'm proud of my dad. Despite my mum's complaints about the maid taking such a long time walking the dog, my dad explained patiently to her that the maid is also human - she needs time out to just walk around and talk with her friends downstairs.
Small thing, but I'm really proud of my dad. :D
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