Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Mystery of Faith

In my last post, I wrote about the mystery of what we call “faith” that is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). As I had written a few times in this blog space, I do not believe in coincidences but in everything God has His plans and purposes. Ever since my last post, I was thinking about what to write and I was contemplating about writing on the topic of “Mystery of Faith” but I could not think of what to write for the content.

Josie more or less “forced” me to subscribe to this particular blog-site, http://lthomason.wordpress.com/ and I received daily the devotion of Lori Thomason. Honestly, I normally skip and file away the devotion mails from Lori Thomason but today for some reason I thought I’ll just read the opening of paragraphs of her devotion and then file the mail away. Guess what? When I opened the mail, the 1st paragraph reads:
Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. For by [faith—trust and holy fervor born of faith] the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report. Hebrews 11:1-2 (AMP)
(This is from Lori's post dated 6 February entitled "Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained")

Needless to say it got me really excited and I shouted to Josie and asked her to come and read the mail. She was also very surprised and thank God for the confirmation because yesterday, we were (or rather I was) talking about Hebrew 11:1 and what it meant to me now as opposed to what it meant to me before I had cancer.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrew 11:1 (NASB)

I had written many times about faith, hope and sovereignty of God. Before my cancer, I thought I understood the verse and subscribed to it and believed in it but feels that I do not fully grasp the intricacy or the deeper meaning of the verse but after the discovery of the cancer in me, the verse took on a totally different meaning. It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. There is simply no need to read deeper into this verse and now I take the verse as is literally and without embellishment. It is exactly as what it says. Lori Thomason also wrote “Faith is most definitely an adventure. But to have the blessed assurance, confirmation…” and I had ended my last blog with the hymn “Blessed Assurance.

To quote Lori further:

“We must become convinced that God is real, Jesus is His Son, His Spirit lives in us and Heaven is our next home. Such a conviction becomes reality only when it is received as a fact even though not revealed to the senses.”

“God is real. Jesus is His Son. His Spirit does live on the inside of all who call on the Name of Jesus to be saved. These are faith facts that should be the basis of your life if you desire Eternal life.”

“Maintaining genuine faith in God requires testing. God allows trials to come in order that we may evaluate our faith in the Lord and see if our true intentions. This is so very important. It is not fun or anything that we desire, but absolutely necessary.”

“To join the faith adventure requires that you believe God is GOOD! His unfailing love, faithfulness and goodness are a part of every promise that the Lord has for your life. Do you believe God is good? The Lord is good not only in the sunshine but also in the rain. He is good in the light and even in darkness. God is always good and His Intentions for your life culminate in the fact that He is good! His Mercy is a direct result of this truth. Faith will never mature fully in anyone who does not believe that God is always good and live life celebrating His Goodness.”

All these are confirmation that God is watching over me because by just having read this one post from Lori reaffirms all that I believed in and all that I had written in my blogs. In all these, God did not say I will be healed but in all these I am assured of God’s presence in my life and now I have heard him because he had spoken to me.

As an add-on to the “coincident”, I was at the National Cancer Centre yesterday for a second opinion and while waiting to see the doctor, I looked out the window and saw the new National Heart Center (NHC) building under construction. As part of my job, I had to deal with NHC and before I started my chemotherapy, I was part of the team that is developing medical equipment proposals to NHC and I was quite involved in solution and infrastructure planning within the team. After I had started my chemotherapy, my colleagues were very kind not to “load” me with work but I just received a mail today seeking my “expertise” on one particular matter for NHC.

What do I gather out of these?

God is bringing me through a journey with Him and He had revealed Himself to me.  I am grateful and thankful. Perhaps it is a signal that I am nearing the end of my journey and that I will have the opportunity to be involved in the NHC deal/project actively.

I leave you with another Hymn and In God We Trust.

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
Words by Julia Ward Howe
Music: Traditional Republic American Melody / Melody attributed to William Steffe
Public Domain

Verse 1:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,
He is tramp’ling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful light'ning of His terrible, swift sword,
His truth is marching on.

Chorus:
Glory! Glory, Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory, Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory, Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

Verse 2:
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgement-seat:
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him; Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

Verse 3:
In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,
His truth is marching on.

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