Date: 06 April 2002

Shalom, Boker-Tov,

We are living in exciting and challenging times. Things happening around us at times confound us and unless one has learnt the secret of trusting in the finished work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the cross, he/ she will find the situations/ circumstances too overbearing. A friend of mine asked me just this week how I felt with all the uncertainties especially in the light of the Middle-East situation and I told him that it is all within the purview of our Father in Heaven. Mankind can start something and unless God allows it, it will fall apart. Now I am not saying that it is God who did it, never! What I am saying is that sinful man, out of his own free will, chooses to do something evil. It would affect a few people but it cannot be widespread because our Father God is the Sovereign God.

I know some of you will immediately pop the next question - then why did God not stop these crazy people from even starting their evil actions? I submit to you that our Father is One who respects our free will. God the Father did not create robots ( as what you are beginning to see in Japan where you can purchase a robot as a friend, house-helper, a pet, etc ). When He created Adam and Eve, He granted them free choice. Man chose the tree - he chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil instead of the Tree of Life. And as a consequence, he now must suffer the results.

Of course God can and do intervene. If you look back at the New York WTC collapse back in September 11th last year, I will tell you that God's hand was there preventing the calamity from being a bigger one. Think about it. If the crash had happened at 09:30 AM ( just half hour later ), the death toll would have been higher as more people would have reported for work and also WTC is a hot tourist spot. The Windows of the World Restaurant ( I was up there in 1990 Sept for a dinner with some of my former colleagues ) gives a splendid panoramic view of New York City and its surroundings. Also, miraculously, there were less than 100 passengers on each of the four planes that crashed on that day and the crashes took place during heavy rush hour air traffic ( unheard off in USA ).

So what am I trying to say? that our faith in the Father must be strong. Unless we plant our feet on the promises of God, we can be overwhelmed and lose heart. It is interesting that Jesus mentioned many times in the four Gospels that "your faith has made you well" each time He performed a healing miracle. In fact there are two recorded incidents of Him commending the "great faith" of the persons who sought Him for healing.
The Centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant who was paralyzed and greatly tormented - Matthew 8: 5 - 13.
The Gentile woman who sought Jesus to cast out the evil spirits from her demon-possessed daughter - Matthew 15: 21 - 28.
In both instances, Jesus was greatly touched by their faith in Him. They knew that they were outcasts by the standards set through the Law and that the only way to obtain His mercy was to believe that Jesus came as the Savior of the world.

In chapter 4 of the Gospel of John, we read of Jesus having a dialogue with a Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob. The woman had a shady background and the people in that village were simply unkind to her. So to avoid gossip and even potential harm to herself, she chose to go to the well at noon to draw water. In the Middle East, one does not go to the well and draw water at noon - simply too hot to do that. And so the setting was there. Jesus passed by and sat at the well and asked her to give Him a drink from her bucket of water. She was surprised that a Jewish Teacher would want to risk talking to her. Now we know that Jesus was hungry when He first arrived because His disciples went into the village to buy something for themselves to eat and later when they returned with Jesus' lunch, they were surprised that He did not look hungry any more. In fact Jesus ministered to the Samaritan woman and in the process, He was nourished. It looks like Jesus gets His joy and satisfaction whenever we draw from Him. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever ( Hebrews 13: 8 ). Today, when we draw from His well of living waters, we act in faith and He is delighted.

In Luke 10: 38 - 42, we read of two sisters Mary and Martha. One day Jesus came to their home and Martha began to busy herself in the kitchen getting the meal ready. On the other hand, Mary did not seem to bother with the meal preparations but chose to just sit at Jesus' feet to learn from Him and to draw from His blessings and in the end, when Martha complained to Jesus about Mary's behavior, He actually scolded Martha for missing out on the important things in life and commended Mary for her actions of faith ( "Mary has chose that good part, which will not be taken away from her" - verse 42 ). And guess what, a few chapters down, Mary took the alabaster of perfume and anointed Jesus' feet just before He was crucified. The ladies who went to the tomb on Easter morning with all their spices and perfume could not anoint Him because He had already risen from the dead and His body was not there for them to anoint.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews summed it all up very beautifully when He gave us the definition of faith in Hebrews 11: 1 & 6.
1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. I encourage each one of us ( and that includes myself ) to have the faith to trust God for the things that we hope for. So often we reply "lets hope so" rather lightly whenever we face an uncertain situation. Rather we should be saying in our hearts, "we believe so" and it will be so.

The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 - 26

Shavrou-tov Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee