From Fear to Faith

St Sava Church, Belgrade 'Christus Pantokrator' Χριστὸς Παντοκράτωρ

'Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.' Habakkuk 3:17-18

Pat and I have just completed a river cruise down the Danube from Hungary to Romania. We visited the poorer towns and villages of the former Eastern European Bloc, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Serbia. 

Bullet riddled Water Tower, Vukovar

These countries survived the harsh conditions of Communism, some under punishing dictatorships. Tourist guides told stories of their difficult past lives but never fought shy of expressing the hope for a better age for them. They told of massacres during the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia states, neighbours killing each other. 

At Vukovar, Croatia, we visited a massacre and memorial site on a remote farm. Around 400 patients and hideaways from Vukovar's hospital were captured. About 200 of these captives were taken to that farm at Ovcara and massacred.

Today, the same thing is happening in the war in Ukraine. The world awaits a global recession precipitated by both the unrelenting Covid-19 pandemic and that war in Ukraine. These are difficult times for most people. Many question Why?

Such times were also recorded in the Bible. Around 600 B.C. the prophet Habakkuk surveyed the prospects of the Kingdom of Judah, looked at the dismal conditions and was both perplexed and fearful. He cried out "How long, Lord, must I cry for help, but you do not listen?" (Habakkuk 1:2a) He saw

• Violence. 'Or I cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?' (Habakkuk 1:2b)

• Injustice. 'Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?' (Habakkuk 1:3a)

• Destruction. 'Destruction and violence are before me?' (Habakkuk 1:3b)

• Conflicts. 'There is strife and violence are before me.' (Habakkuk 1:3c)

At such times it is natural to be fearful. Believers have the tendency to ask God these heartfelt questions, expecting answers. (Ref 1).

From the pages of history, we learnt that these troublesome times will pass. We move from fear to faith, which was the experience of the Eastern European countries we travelled in. We noticed that these villages and townships kept the flame of their Orthodox Christianity. Small churches in various villages such as Arbanassi survived despite the atheistic communist regimes. How did these Christians keep their faith in spite of living in fear under draconian regimes?

Churches in Arbanassi, 

Quoting Habakkuk, Nicky Gumbel stated that, "Faith involves believing what God has said in spite of the difficulties you face." (Ref 1)

'The righteous will live by their faith' Habakkuk 2:4b

 

What is especially encouraging is that the faith of these Christians came back with a vengeance. The cupola or apse of churches or cathedrals have been restored along with the large mosaics or frescoes of 'Christ Pantokrator' as an emphatic statement of their faith.

The icon of Christ Pantokrator occupies the central dome of the Orthodox churches and cathedrals. It celebrates Christ as God Almighty, the Lord of Hosts. It draws the attention of the congregation to sing 'O Worship the King' 

O worship the King, all glorious above,

O gratefully sing God's power and God's love;

our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,

pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of God's might, O sing of God's grace,

whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,

whose chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,

and dark is God's path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,

Almighty, thy power hath founded of old;

hath stablished it fast by a changeless decree,

and round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?

It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;

it streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,

and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,

in thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail;

thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,

our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

Lionel

Ref 1: Nicky Gumbel YouVersion Bible in One Year Day 300.

The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

Saint Patrick

'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.' Matthew 5:5

Life is full of paradoxes and the most intriguing paradox is the statement 'The meek shall inherit the earth.' Given this dog-eat-dog societal mentality these days, it would have been most laughable if it had not indeed been uttered by Jesus Christ Himself in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:5. But if you have lived for three scores and ten years, like me, you will realise after observing life on this earth, that there is much truth in what Jesus said. 

Two messages I heard recently lend credence to this Beatitude. 

• The weak shall become strong - Nicky Gumbel
• Silence speaks louder than words. - Bishop (Dr) Gordon Wong

Both messages were about missions and missionaries. They bring much hope and confidence for the simple, ordinary folks who availed themselves to actualise God's calling to serve Him as missionaries. 

The Weak Shall Become Strong. Nicky Gumbel (Ref 1) shared about the life of  Saint Patrick. Patrick came from Cumbria in Northern England. At the age of 16 he was captured by Irish raiders who brought him to Ireland to serve as a slave herding and tending sheep. 

Nicky Gumbel wrote, 'Patrick was poorly educated, ineloquent and faced significant opposition throughout his ministry from those who felt that he wasn't up to the task. Even as an old man he admitted, "Today I still blush and fear more than anything to have my lack of learning brought out to the open." Yet despite all his disadvantages Patrick remained convinced that God had called him to be an evangelist.' 

Patrick wrote, 'We are a letter of Christ for salvation even to the back of beyond - and what does it matter if it is not a learned letter? For it is still to be found valid and plain for all to read, written in your very hearts and not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God!' 

Understanding his weakness, St Patrick said, "If I have any worth it is to live my life for God so as to teach these people; even though some of them still look down on me."

Nicky commented, 'Even Patrick's weakness was anointed! Today long after his more eloquent contemporaries have long been forgotten, the impact of St Patrick's ministry and mission to Ireland 1500 years ago is still recognised around the world.' 

Patrick became the patron saint of Ireland and is annually honoured in Ireland and many Catholics with the celebration of Saint Patrick's Day on March 17. 

Silence Speaks Louder Than Words. The Bishop of the Methodist Church in Singapore, Rev (Dr) Gordon gave the message on the 30th anniversary of the Methodist Missions Society. He entitled it, 'Spreading the News?' with a question mark on purpose. The Bishop said that contrary to all expectations, after performing miracles, Jesus cautioned his disciples against spreading the news. 

After healing a leper in Matthew 8:4 Jesus said to him, 'See that you don't tell anyone.'  After restoring the sight of two blind man, Jesus warned them sternly, 'See that no one knows about this.' Matthew 9:30. When he was healing large crowds in Matthew 12:15-16. Jesus warned them not to tell others about Him. In Matthew 16:20, Jesus ordered His disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Isaiah prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ,

'Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on Him and He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout out or cry out or raise His voice in the streets.' Isaiah 42:1-2

In these days, of public relations, we might think it strange that Jesus preferred to do things the quiet way. Someone said, 'If you can't win by reason, you got to go for volume.' 

Similarly, Bishop Gordon Wong advised the Methodist Missionaries not to spread the gospel by shouting loudly in public but by being the good news. He said more powerful will be good deeds done with quiet love in secret. St Francis of Assisi was quoted.

'Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words' 

The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth. Bishop Emeritus Robert M Solomon in his book, the Sermon of Jesus wrote that meekness is not listlessness, a lack of courage nor the absence of strong convictions. In a world where people fight for supremacy, to be king of the heap, the person who is meek is someone who

• Trusts in God
• Gentle because strength is from God.
• Depends on God and not on own resources
• Strength under control, derived from submission to God
• Has a passionate delight in God
• Enjoys God's presence
• Knows and Obeys God's Word.
• Waits on God in stillness and patience
• Inner strength that need not be outwardly visible
• No drive for fleeting and temporary gains

Such a person, wrote the Bishop, has no need to emulate the winning ways of the world. That person is Jesus Christ as Graham Kendrick aptly described Him in the paradoxical mystery of this song Meekness and Majesty: 

 

Meekness and majesty,
Manhood and Deity,
In perfect harmony,
The Man who is God.
Lord of eternity
Dwells in humanity,
Kneels in humility
And washes our feet.

O what a mystery,
Meekness and majesty.
Bow down and worship
For this is your God,
This is your God.

Father's pure radiance,
Perfect in innocence,
Yet learns obedience
To death on a cross.
Suffering to give us life,
Conquering through sacrifice,
And as they crucify
Prays: 'Father forgive.'

Wisdom unsearchable,
God the invisible,
Love indestructible
In frailty appears.
Lord of infinity,
Stooping so tenderly,
Lifts our humanity
To the heights of His throne

Lionel

Ref 1. Nicky Gumbel The Bible in One Year Day 154

Ref 2. Robert M Solomon The Sermon of Jesus. Armour Publishing, 2013

Exponential Multiplication

Tabgha's Mosaic (480 C.E.)

"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" John 6:9

Nicky Gumbel told this story (Ref 1), Hatti May Wiatt, a six-year-old girl, lived near Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia, USA. The Sunday school was very crowded. Russell H Conwell, the minister told her that one day they would have buildings big enough to allow everyone to attend. She said, "I hope you will. It is so crowded I am afraid to go there alone." He replied, "When we get enough money we will construct one large enough to get in all the children."

Two years later in 1886, Hattie May died. After the funeral Hattie's mother gave the minister a little bag they had found under their daughter's pillow containing 57 cents in change that she had saved up. Alongside it was a note in her writing: 'To help build bigger so that more children can go to Sunday school.'

The minister changed all the money into pennies and offered each for sale. He received $250 - and 54 of the cents were given back. The $250 was itself changed into pennies and sold by the newly formed Wiatt Mite Society. In this way her 57 cents kept on multiplying.

Twenty-six years later, in a talk entitled, 'The history of the 57 cents', the minister explained the results of her 57-cent donation: a church with a membership of 5,600 people, a hospital where tens of thousands of people had been treated, 80,000 young people going through university, 2,000 people going out to preach the gospel - all this happened because Hattie May Wiatt invested her 57 cents. 

This story reminds me of a famous miracle by Jesus, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Today this miracle is commemorated at the Church in Tabgha by the shores of the Sea of Gallilee. This miracle, described in John 6:5-13 has some similarities with the Hatty May story. From a meagre 5 loaves and two fishes of a small boy, first divided and then multiplied several times, five thousand men and more women and children were fed. A measly 57 cents savings of a small girl divided into pennies, then multiplied by donations into a foundation that provided charity and humanitarian relief to countless people. 

These two miracles demonstrated a mathematical concept of exponential multiplication in which something multiplies by itself over and over again; such as the pennies, fish and loaves. Just a few pennies? The answer is found in the passage in Matthew describing the miracle of exponential multiplication in which Jesus instructed, "Bring me what you have." 

"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fishes," they answered. "Bring them here to me," He said. Matthew 14: 17-18 

Whenever we offer to the Lord our ordinary resources, Jesus Christ will work a miracle of transformation to answer a need in the community and in our lives. 

John Bunyan in the Pilgrim's Progress posed a riddle, 

'A man there was, though some did count him mad

The more he cast away the more he had.'

Çharles Spurgeon commented, "It is certainly so with talent and ability, and with grace in the heart. The more you use it, the more there is of it."

It is not the numbers of loaves nor the fish that matter. The boy packed just enough to feed himself that day. The point was that he gave to Jesus all that he had and from that donation, the miracle of exponential multiplication could ensue. 

Another real-life account of giving all that one had is recounted in Mark 12:41-44

'Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - all that she had to live on."  

My father in law the late Rev James Kao Jih Eng, a Chinese-speaking Methodist Pastor, took this two coins lesson to heart. I watched him collect milkmaid tin cans, washed them, restored the covers and wrapped them up with a donation appeal for the church building fund. He placed them at the door of the church. He told me that he noticed only the poor and elderly ladies collected those donation tin cans. They would dutifully save whatever they could, small change, and hand over these tins during the offering. 

I watched my father in law empty those cans and count them at end of the Sunday. The men and the young people seemed to be too proud or embaressed to take those tin cans, they were happy to donate their money in the offering bags. Little though these tin-can donations may be, I know that my father in law raised money to build Foochow Methodist Church and Geylang Chinese Methodist Church in Singapore, Chin Hock Methodist Church in Kampong China, Sitiawan and another church on Pingtan Island in China. 

It does not matter how much or how little you give, God will multiply your gift many times over. He owns the Cattle on a Thousand Hills

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills
The wealth in every mine,
He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills,
The sun and stars that shine,
Wonderful riches more than tongue can tell
He is my Father so they're mine as well
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills
I know that He will care for me.

Lionel

Ref 1: Nicky Gumbel, The Bible in One Year 2020, Day 55