Heralds Digest

  “ He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”” Psalms 91 : 1 - 2 NKJV When Lot decided for the well-watered plain of Jordan or Sodom and Gomorrah, there wasn’t any doubt in his discretion or choice for the sweet place over the secret place. Even today, the secret place is mostly considered as the loose lane, ridden with long-waiting time or delay, disappointment, and discouragement. And when people say ‘ Heaven helps those who helped themselves ’, they actually means ‘ use your brain in career choices, project management, business or family partnership, etc’ because they suggest that waiting on God is synonymous to waiting on the prospects of the principalities around you. Whereas, “ Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (I Corinthians 1 : 25 )”, God’s supposed loose lane is actual...

  “ The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression .” Proverbs 19 : 11 NKJV While politicians appear to understand the glow and glory in grace, the recipients of the true grace are often ridden in the chain of disunity, disagreement, and discord. Their ‘no permanent enemies, but permanent interests’ mantra is always a best-selling motivation for the pursuit of excellence in life. Unfortunately, most believers would readily hang on to unproductive baggage of differences and ideologies under the disguise of orderliness as though a laurel is in focus. Whereas, one of the fundamental essence of grace is glory in appearance, agreement, and appeal, even in the heat of offence; not the disgraceful disunity, disagreement, and discord. “ For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly ( Psalms 84 : 11 )” suggests the endowment of glory after the Impartat...

  “ So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands .” Psalms 90 : 12 , 17 NKJV If Moses could roll back the hand of the clock, he would have applied more wisdom to his approach to work engagement with the rebellious Israel. Unfortunately, even today, many people do readily misinterpret his clear prayer for wisdom to engage productively each of his days, rather than asking for wisdom to dedicate one day in a year to frivolity. The human heart is naturally wired for everyday frivolity; and no one needs the help of God to keep on the free fall. But rather, we need grace to radiate the beauty of God’s holiness through our everyday transaction with the people. And like Ken Costa wrote in his book ‘God at Work’ that if the Christian faith is not relevant in the workplace, it is not relevant at all. Moses knew so well the cost of a fr...

  “ Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you.” Romans 15 : 30 - 32 NKJV While it is understandable that politics is a game of numbers, the manifestation of the presence of God in the midst of His people is not based on the multitude of people. For example, the ministry of Paul in Jerusalem particularly solicited prayer to promote quality over the quantity of people in the assembly. Unfortunately, today, we are often tempted to focus on the numerical strength of our gathering instead of promoting the presence of the spirit of God. Little wonder why unbelievers in the agenda of God for the expansion of the kingdom of God do readily constitute strong cloa...

  “ For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit .” Romans 15 : 4 , 13 NKJV While someone says hope is the little sister of the three theological virtues — the other two being love and faith, it does appear that it is more about a lifelong learning  and grabbing of an endless hope from an hopeless end. From a casual reflection on the fundamentals of thermodynamics, love and faith can be best described as possessing the characteristics of state variables; while hope will pass for a process variable. And everyone knows the patience required to underpin and learn the changes and dynamics of process variables, compared to the instantaneous determination of state variables. Well, by transitioning from casual to spiritual, believers in Christ Jesus need...

  “ But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way .” Romans 14 : 10 , 12 - 13 NKJV While there is no doubt in the fact that justices with zero conflict of interest are just, such justices are reserved for the judgment seat of Christ. Notwithstanding, for the will of God to be done on earth, in our homes, and throughout our relationships, as it is in heaven, believers must resolve to devote life to judging self instead of others. “ Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way” . If we can live to judge whether we have sufficiently done well to pass the stand before the judgment seat of Christ, in ...

  “ For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. ” Romans 13 : 3 - 4 NKJV In human governance, citizenship comes with rights and responsibilities; while most citizens would like to play up their rights and play down their responsibilities. Whereas, since God is the Judge in divine governance, citizenship is mainly concerned about responsibilities. For God is a righteous Rewarder of every believer’s rights, as long as he does what is right always. Little wonder why believers are not called into the practices of human rights activism, freedom fighting, civil rights advocacy, etc? It is because they believe and uphold the scriptural injunction that the responsibility of good gover...