Dwelling Place

Psalm 90:1

LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Been meditating this one simple scripture for the whole morning. It's common how we usually get too accustomed to particular truth of the Word that we forgot to chew more and sink deeper in the truth.

As usual, I used to read the whole passage, particularly in Psalm. Jump from one verse to another verse. But today, this opening of Moses' prayer really caught me on the spot.

LORD in this verse in the source language is 'Adonay' which means Master. This is one of the term which express God's character and role in our life. Master. Lord. More than just Saviour. In our walk with God, there are many characteristics of God which we ought (means will, if we haven't) to experience through our daily lives. It's one thing to look up in the Bible, reading the character of God or studying the name of God (which reflects His character in the end), but it's a different thing to experience Him as He is in our real lives. The question is have we experience Him as our Master? Perhaps better rephrased: Have we allowed Him to be our Master? Master in our daily lives, in our choices, in our attitude, in our words, in our deeds, in our thoughts, in our feelings--in short, in our whole existences.

Now, the truth above play a major role in the rest meaning of the verse. LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. We're all know what dwelling place means. A place to live in; residence;house; abode. Home. What really interesting here is the word in all generations. In Hebrew, the word for generations here could also mean dwelling-place, habitation. Now, if it is read with the another meaning from the translation, it may paraphrased like this:

Master, You have been our dwelling place in all dwelling-place... You have been our home in all habitation.

Not that the fact that God has been faithful to be our refuge throughout the generations of the believers is not true. But apparently there is something more than just the truth about God's faithfulness in this verse. It was experiencing Him as a dwelling place, no matter where we are or stay, in our relationship with Him as Master.

How can we experience God as a dwelling place (read: home) while we view Him as our Master?

After the Fall, humankind have had difficulties in having the right perspective about God. Especially in term of Someone who is superior. Some of us have difficulties in regarding God as a Loving Father, because we never have an earthly father who shows love to us. This tainted our image about our God as a Father. Even more difficult to that is viewing God as a Loving yet Just Master. For the humankind which has suffer a long term of injustice slavery, a word Master still haunted us to this day. In our hearts we want to be free, we hate to be slaves. And we thought having a Master will certainly bring us into a slavery, a state which seemed unfavorable to all mankind. Is it so with God?

Before I'm getting too far into the arguments of master-slavery relationship facts, I just want to say that same as the tainted image of God as a father, we also have a perverted definition about master and slave relationship. That has become an issue in our relationship with God. I don't know about you, but for me, calling God (and of course, really regarding Him in my heart and attitude) as my Master is not easy-quick change after I was born again. There are many issues involved. Trust is #1. Following Him with total surrender, means THOROUGH ABANDONMENT. Struggles and doubts are not uncommon. Want a simple example? God wants us to be honest, but in many situations we found ourselves so easily compromising in our talks. (And we give a beautiful name to that = white lies). Now when we have done wrong, God in His great grace give a way out. Confess your sin (which right away our 'intelligent' mind take over the arguments= but it was for good, if not it will be worse, or... I don't have other options, etc.--add as you like), ask for forgiveness, ask God to cleanse us, and the last yet not the least part, confess the truth to those we have lied to, when God told us to. (OK--I'm just experience this, for a 'white lie' on Saturday night, took me a period till Monday afternoon to confess to another party who has being lied to. Thanks to God--the outcome is not as bad as I imagine before. God, please forgive me for not trusting You wholly.) Calling God as our MASTER requires that, not sometimes, but all the time. The good news is, no matter how often we failed Him, His grace is sufficient for us to repent and start all over again :D Now, that's what I called a True Master. Full of grace and mercy, yet is righteous and just. I do hope this little example could give a better picture for you to view this relationship.

As I learn this part of my relationship with God, the Word of God say that He is Our refuge no matter where we are. This mean that we can only tap into the reality of experiencing God as our Shelter after we make Him our Master. I'm still growing in this lesson, but I do challenge anyone who read this blog to really put this to test. Why don't you try it with your life, just in simple things (like telling the truth ALL the time)? I believe you will experience God is TRULY a Shelter, a Refuge, a HOME you've been searching for...

I give this invitation because I have experienced it myself. I'm not giving you my promise, I'm just restated His promise, which myself has experienced over and over again--I do hope and pray that by the grace of God, I could continue on this path. I have to add, our knowledge about Him will grow, as we walk in obedience to HIM. We obey Him because He is our Master. You obey your master. And the motivation is not afraid of the bad consequences if we're not willing to obey. But really, the motivation is TRUST and LOVE. Now that it's something that needs God's grace and revelation to understand. Obeying your Master out of love and trust. (OK, further explanations maybe covered in another posts ;P)

When we experience God as our true home, we don't have to fear the instability of place change or any other change. There is a very popular adage in regarding to change which people often quote to endorse change or to cope with the inconvenience of change :

Nothing endures but change.--Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

Though it may be true for the facts of life, but when we have found God as our home, we found that stability, that security, that fulfillment that we've been searching and longing for all this time. Because in life, besides change, God stays the same. He is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow.(Hebrew 13 :8) We may be experiencing relocation--planned or unplanned, change-- wanted or unwanted, even to the extreme of none (like suddenly losing everything, homeless, penniless, etc.). But when we found Him as our home, we won't be homeless anymore. To get into that point, and to stay in that state, is a constant preserved relationship with Him as our Master.

Christians

Just received a wonderful poem-fwd by my friend. It's a work by Maya Angelou.

Christians - By Maya Angelou

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting, "I'm clean living'."
I'm whispering, "I was lost,
Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner
Who received God's good grace, somehow!

Such a profound poem, hope you are blessed by it as much as I am.

Points to ponder

It's been a while since I'm updating this blog. For the last 2 days been pretty busy attending seminar about the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. My thoughts has been directed to that particular topic for the last couple of days. Several confirmations, resolutions (guess I got better understanding now than before- thanks a lot to Prof.Dr. Brian J. Bailey), and of course, motivation and passion to fulfill God's calling. I know there are many interpretation regarding the end time (or the explanation of 'super hard passages' of Daniel-OT and Revelation-NT). But up to this point of my learning, (I'm still learning though & plan to keep on learning till my time is over :D) I think there several important points need to be carefully kept in heart and mind:

1. The truth of 2nd coming of Jesus Christ is greater than the 1st coming in the Bible (the passages and prophesies are far greater in amount) but sadly, the explanation about the 2nd coming is less than the 1st coming. I mean, we all are so familiar with the Christmas story, with all the details (OK, biblical facts plus the cultural ones). But regarding the 2nd coming, I guess many people already settled for the controversies and opinions, much sourced from speculation and in the end, not stand the tests of time. I guess that's why some people are very careful in discussing this 'sensitive' topics. I'm not saying that we should not be careful. Yes, we have to be careful in learning and teaching the truth of God. But this doesn't mean that our fear of being 'careless' drag us away from telling the hard truth. Just because there are many controversies, doesn't mean we should not discuss it in the light of God's word and getting the right perspective from the Word of God. After all, it's a learning process. The more we rely on God, Holy Spirit, the Helper, will certainly teach us ALL things and bring to our remembrance all thing that Jesus said to us. (John 14:26) I believe ALL here including the truth regarding the things which will come to pass. (It's very interesting to note that Jesus' teaching about the end time are all mentioned in the 3 Synoptic Gospel [read: Matthew 24:1-51, Mark 13:1-37, Luke 21:5-38])
2. Based on point #1 above, I guess it's about time we bring hard truth to light. With faith that God will reveal the truth to us, we press forward in searching the very heart and thoughts of God so that we may please Him in doing what He wants us to do. This mean moving beyond all the controversies and dispute over theories and aiming for the essentials. The essentials of living with a perspective of eternity, yet knowing how limited time we have on earth. Walking with a sense of peace and security, yet not forgetting to do what needs to be done in the right timing. No hurry, no worry, just having the right perpective in life. But having perspective of eternity is something easy to say, yet so hard to do. Unless by the grace of God, the perspective of eternity is impossible to preserve. The question which is really important to ask is not what do you do today for God, but what do God wants you to do today. God is everlasting. Of all great characteristics of God, i think everlasting is the most distinguish one. All that God wants us to do-no matter how trivial or useless it may seem now sometimes-has always eternal consequences. Having this thought in mind, brings great consolation in the midst of trials and storms of life. On the other hand, this thought also frame the very motivation of our hearts. God sees it. Clearly.

So, I encourage us (yes, me included) to seeking the truth, esp regarding end times. Not the controversies, not the predictions. Just the truth, so that we may walk in light and not be robbed of our eternal rewards.