Remember your Creator in the days of your youth

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Reading I kissed dating goodbye recently.. certain things in the book strike me.
"Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."2 Tim 2:22

Joshua Harris wrote.."One of the best ways to maintain a pure life is to watch out for the purity of others.What can you do to protect your brothers and sisters in the Lord from impurity?What can you say to encourage them to keep their hearts set in the direction of righteousness?"
This is something im trying to learn.. instead of trying to figure out y im getting some weird emotions.. Ladies - your job is to keep your brothers from being led astray by her(the seductive spirit of impurity and compromise symbolized by a wayward adultress) charms.

Something that strike me today was Rebakah's story before she was married to Issac. It's about not neglecting the precious time, abilities and responsiblilities that God has placed in my life..
Joshua Harris wrote.."We may not know whom or when we'll marry.But we must not allow what we cant know to hinder us from acting on what we do know.And what do we know?We know that we have today to move with resolute energy toward maturity and Christlikeness, a calling of evrey Christian whether he or she will narry next week or ten years from now."
here goes the story about Rebekah...

"In the Old Testament, Rebekah is a young woman who "redeemed the time" by faithfully fulfilling her current obligations.We could learn a few things by revisiting the story of how she prepared for,met, and married her husband.The story begins when Abraham sends his oldest and most trusted servant to his hometown to find a wife for his son Issac. Catherine Vos continues the story this way:

At last,after several days of travel, he reached the place where Abraham's brother NAhor now lived.This city was called Haran.Outside the city was a well of water.In that day country there was often only one well for a whole city.Every night the young girls of the city when out to the well,with tall pitchers into the well and drew water.Then they carried it home on their heads for the family to use.
When Abraham's servant came to Haran,he made his camels kneel down by the well.It was evening--just the time when the young girls always gathered around the well to draw water.
Abraham's servant believed in God.He had come safely on his journey and had reached the city to which Abraham had sent him.But he thought to himself,"How shall I be able to tell which young girl is the one God wants Issac to have for his wife?"He kneeled down on the ground beside the well and bowed his head.He prayed,"O Lord God of my master Abraham,help me this day!When the daughters of the people of the city come down to draw water, and i say to one of them,'Let down your pitcher, I pray you, that I may drink,' and she shall say,"Drink, and i will give your camels drink also,' let that be the one whom Thou hast appointed as a wife for Issac."
God often answers prayer almost before we have asked, and He did so this time.Before the servant had finished praying,a very beautiful girl named Rebekah came to the well. The servant thought,"Can this be the right one?" He ran to her and said,"Let me, I pray you, drink a little water out of your pitcher?"
The girl said very politely,"Drink,my lord,and i will draw water for your camels also,til they have finished drinking."She took the pitcher down from her head and let him drink.Then she emptied the rest of the water into the drinking trough for the camels.She kept drawing water til all the camels had had a drink.
The servant was very much astonished to have her say and do just as he had prayed that she might.Had his prayer been answered so soon?When the camels had had enought water,he gave Rebekah a rich,gold ring which he had brought with him, and he put on her arms two beautiful gold bracklets.
Then he asked her, "Whose daughter are you?is there room in your father's house for us to stay?"
She answered,"I am Nahor's granddaughter.We have plenty of room for you to stay with us, and straw and food for your camels."Nahor was Abraham's brother.When the servant heard this,he was so happy that he bowed his head down to the ground and worshipped,saying "Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has led me to the house of my master's family."

The rest of the story(which you can read in Genesis 24)tells how Rebekah agreed within 2 days to return with Abraham's servant to marry Isaac,a man she had never met.The tale is,without question, an amazing example of God's soverignity over evrey detail of our lives. In our own day, these events were astonishing;today,separated by thousands of years and very different cultures,we find them even more astounding.And yet, as with all of God's Word,we can learn a lesson from this story that transcends time and culture.
Although we dont study the story as a model of how every couple should meet and marry, we can learn from Rebekah's attitude and actions.In an article entitled " The Adventure of Current Obligations", Gregg Harris points out an important principle of the story : "Rebekah was able to meet God's diving appointment for her life because she was faithfully carrying out her current obligations."
For Rebekah, the trip to the well that particular evening was nothing special.She made that trip every night.And she'd probably watered more than a few camels.Yet though her task was mundane,she had a quickness to her step and a ready willingness to serve others.These qualities put her in the right place at the right time with the right attitude when God intended to match her with Isaac.
We all have our own camels to water --current relationships and responsibilities we can too easily take for granted.If we're wise,we'll see our duties not as unimportant ways to bide our time,but as springboards, launching us into God's plan and purpose for our futre."

This sets me to think about the time i've spent of thinking about unnecessary matters. Too much effort was put in to try to sort those emotional ups and downs and it saps away my energy that i could use to do more important things. It became so single-minded and narrow that i missed the bigger picture of my life."Com'on life is not jus about that! there's so much more important things to it!" Even bringing up the issue distracts me,make me think about it and a divided heart was eventually developed.But i thank God that He has brought me back to think that...things that i've done and say is jus so WU LIAO! i might have even stumble my sister during the process..affecting more than jus myself..Im sorry.
So.. now, i guess he's really not worth so much of my thoughts esp during this exam period..
I had so many complaints, confused feelings...cos i dun understand why some of the feelings im experiencing now is so different from those in the past...and i dun understand why this must happen..one thing i do know is that i've learnt how to see such relationships from God's perspective and if there's more for me to noe, i trust that it will be revealed to me sooner or later..even if it's not, God is good..all the time, and he'll provide the necessary comfort that i need even before i ask him..I pray that my sis will soon get out of this emotional rollercoaster too..teach us Your ways,show us Your path!

Signing off...Tingyu^^