THANK GOD JOSHUA GOT TOP FOUR IN CLASS!

I really thank God for Joshua's good results and that he got top four in class again! He did much better in this year end exam than last year. Overall I felt that his results for primary 5 (P5) was better than primary 4 (P4)considering he had an additional subject (Higher Chinese) and the standard was up another level in P5. When most students would experience a big drop in results, Joshua improved instead. This was like how God blessed Isaac and he reaped a hundredfold in the time of famine.

I still recalled last year a mum who told me that in moving from P4 to P5, their grades would slide quite badly because it became increasingly difficult. I rejected that in Jesus' name. But still I encountered a tough situation during mid year when I found there wasn't enough time for Joshua to do all the exam practice papers. We were like struggling to do as much as we could. Not only that, the teachers had been telling the kids that the subjects were more difficult now, as if to scare them. The students were also echoing what the teachers said. Joshua was so affected that his confidence took a hit.

God turned it around when He proved to Joshua that it really wasn't as tough as others made it out to be. During mid year exams, even though his grades weren't as good, it wasn't as bad as what others were saying. Thank God his math results maintained while for the other subjects he just got a few marks lesser than in P4 mid year exams. The drop wasn't as big as others made it out to be. The best part was the subject he feared the most, Higher Chinese, he was able to obtain a distinction. Really God's grace!

I thank God for showing Joshua that nothing is too hard for God. And we are children of the Most High God, so we are not subject to the world's system. We don't have to conform to the patterns of this world. We are more than conquerors in Christ. More than just the results, I thank God that Joshua has learnt to rely on God more in this exam. He has learnt to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit in seeking for advice. It didn't matter that sometimes he missed it and got the answer wrong. It was a process of learning to discern His voice. It would only get better. I did what I could to prepare Joshua for the exams but I knew the rest was up to God. Only God can help Joshua during his exams. Thank God for being so real to Joshua!

INTERSTELLAR PART IV

I was very encouraged by excerpts from this book 'God in Every Season' by Elizabeth Enlow. It was just launched on 11 Nov 2017. This is her book synopsis. The cycles or seasons of life that we go through aren't simply an organisational system put into place by a distant God to help us earthlings keep track of time. The seasons you personally go through, and the one you're currently in, are the very backdrop on the stage of the greatest love story of all...yours. The various seasons of your soul are your assurance that not only is your journey with God real, but your story isn't over yet.

God Himself escorts you through the changing seasons, makes sure you don't get stuck, and gets the last word on everything that concerns you, because He cares about you. Seasons are an expression of His intimate intentionality to keep you moving forward, progressing, and growing in the knowledge of Him and His true heart for you, beyond the unpredictable challenges and victories that arise.

Well this reminded me of the movie Interstellar which I watched again recently. It also talked about the concept of time. Imagine a world of five dimensions, where time and space are dimensions instead of limitations. It isn't impossible, just that we are so accustomed to our world of time and space constraints that we find it hard to imagine. This is something alien to us. But this will be the kind of world we live in when we go to heaven.

God is not limited by time and space. He can go to and fro in different points in time. Just like how Cooper saw Murphy in her room at various times. He was in the fifth dimension trying to reach out to Murphy. TARS said that the fifth dimension beings were real but they could not reach the earthlings. They were not able to pin down to a certain time and place. Actually this wasn't surprising because if you could live forever, why would dates be so important to you?

We are taught to number our days because our time on earth is limited. If you could live forever, would you bother to keep track of your age? You would lose count at some point. In a sense God put the times and seasons in place to better communicate with us. It is a message of His love for us that He is not finished with us. He is still waiting to move us forward.

Now back to the story of Cooper. He realised that gravity was one thing that could transcend time and space. As in even when time and space are no longer constraints or when this earth is no more, gravity still exists. Like how gravitational pull plays a big part in black holes. In my earlier posts, I likened gravity to the word of God. Isaiah 40:8 says 'The grass withers and the flowers fall,but the word of God endures forever.'

To me, love also transcends time and space. Beyond all the complex scientific jargon of this movie, at the core of it was a message of love. The love of a father and the connection between them. It was this love that enabled Murphy to solve the equation and overcame the problem of gravity and saved the earthlings. No one could believe her when she told them it was her dad who provided her with the quantum data, which was the key to solving the equation.

The other interesting concept was about time dilation. On earth we see time as finite. The time taken for a certain process like an object falling to the ground was almost the same in any part of the world. That was because the gravitational pull on earth was the same, maybe with a little variation that is negligible. However when one is in space the gravitational pull varies significantly. That is why time can be bent, hence time dilation. The closer one is to the centre of the gravitational pull, the slower time passes.

I saw a parallel in the spiritual sense. The closer one is to God, the slower the person ages. This is because God is not limited by time so He can redeem the years the locusts had eaten. Not only that, He renews our youth like the eagles. Hence time is not finite when it is time spent with God. We also see this concept at work when an astronaut orbits space after a few years, his peers would have aged more than him. This is the concept of time dilation at work.

When Cooper and Murphy were in space, time became a limited resource just like fuel. Even though they didn't grow older from the time dilation, there was a time lapse of decades each time they met with a delay. It was a big opportunity cost for them. People on earth were dying by the minute. There might not be a world to save if they were too late. Hence the race against time. I also saw a parallel in this. We the people of God might not age as much but the people around us like our parents are. Hence we are also hard pressed for time to get them saved.

Besides Jesus is returning soon hence the acceleration we are seeing in these last days. God is not even waiting for the youths to grow up to get them on fire for Him. Pastor was saying last Sunday that he never saw so many youths coming to God in his lifetime. It was like a revival of the youths. The gospel revolution is already happening all over the world at a much faster pace than before. We are living in accelerated times. This is not the time for us to be distracted from our mission but to be more focused. To set our eyes on Jesus.