In the Still of the Night

I am awake at 5am this morning, of all mornings, a Saturday morning. A morning that I am not rostered to do duty or cover for anybody.

But I believe that the Lord put to me some ideas in the middle of the night because I woke up with a mind nearly exploding with numerous solutions to some of the challenges lying in front of me.

I'm not sure that this hasn't happened before, but I think today's message and direction was very clearly set down in my mind. I don't think it was ever put to me as clearly as it was today.

Awhile ago I was pondering the following verses in passing.

NIV
Deuteronomy 6:11
... houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied,

Another Translation:
The Message
Deuteronomy 6:10
When God, your God, ushers you into the land he promised through your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you, you're going to walk into large, bustling cities you didn't build, well-furnished houses you didn't buy, come upon wells you didn't dig, vineyards and olive orchards you didn't plant. When you take it all in and settle down, pleased and content, make sure you don't forget how you got there—God brought you out of slavery in Egypt. (The Message Bible)

NIV Nehemiah 9:25
They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.

Aother Translation:
The Message Nehemiah 9:25
... The Canaanites who lived there you brought to their knees before them. You turned over their land, kings, and peoples to do with as they pleased. They took strong cities and fertile fields, they took over well-furnished houses, Cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, and lush, extensive orchards. And they ate, grew fat on the fat of the land; they reveled in your bountiful goodness.

I was fascinated with the implications of un-numbered, undeserved blessings, heaped onto those that the Lord considered His own.

I also wondered how the Lord would translate land, kings, wells, into the modern, Singaporean context.

I suppose I was just thinking in a straight line when I thought of mud-huts and hand-hewn wells :P I guess He was speaking of status when He spoke of kings and of hand-hewn wells He meant "works of our hands".

I have just realised that God has answered my wonderings with something very material and very worldly. Which verifies what my pastor has been saying for years - that God is more than willing to bless us with material things even though we think God's main concern is spirituality. Rightness. Purity.

Not only is He willing to bless us, He makes sures that we get every good thing we deserve and those that we do not even have to strive to attain.

I guess this is often creation's viewpoint of the creator: Narrowed because where would we know to begin if He was not the beginning of our understanding?

In the light of the recent developments I pray that He will continue assist me to centre myself in Him and that I remember His voice in the still of the night in the midst of the thundering storm to come.


- 2 October 2010 8:36am -