Trees and Fruits

Just spent a wonderful afternoon with my spiritual grandson Shao Bing :)

He asked me if I could help him get some books to read cos he wants to improve his English so I decided to meet up with him and spend some FEELING time as well :)

Had a great time just hearing him share... it's wonderful to see what the Lord is doing in his life... and I'm just so amazed at the hands of the Lord... in touching someone and changing a life...

well, ppl... once you've tasted Jesus, life will never be the same again... (hey, this sounds like some advert...)

I've been pondering recently about how to share my life with my ppl.. about how the Lord brought me through tough times and about all the things that He has revealed to me through these years of walking with Him. I just feel I've got so much I wanna say and share with them... about the goodness of God and how He'll never leave us nor forsake us... how you can be so close to Him if you'd just spend some time to still your heart and let Him fill your heart.

To share my experiences with the Lord so as to encourage them in their difficult moments.

Then I realise that I can't just download everything into them...? hahaha... although I wish I could... cos I know that they'd only be ready to hear only when they reach different stages of their lives... when they hit an obstacle... when they're faced with a difficult situation... or when the Lord puts little miracles in their lives and make known His reality...

yet today, when something clicked in my spirit as I spent that time with my grandson...

I realised that, the only way I can truly share my life with them, is to spend that personal time with them...

you see, on an open cell group platform, as I'm sharing in a large group, it's more like a presentation. It's just info download and the personal exchange is kept to a minimum. As much aas I try to share my life with them, they can only catch so much of the spirit or the essence of what I've gone through, to help them understand that some one's been there and done that, so it's possible for them to also cling and go through it.

and sometimes, what I share is not specific to individuals... there's just so much more ppl, that you can squeeze out of me...

you see, if I had that personal time with Ps Khong, I'm sure there's more about his life that he can share with me, as opposed to what he can share on the pulpit. His rich experiences in ministry and his walk with God is much deeper than what we can see on the surface. You can see that passion to share his life when he preaches on the pulpit, and that's what makes his sermons come alive! Because you know this man has walked through life with the Lord and it gives substance to what he is sharing; that it is not just mere information that you're catching, but the spirit of his heart to love and serve the Lord!

Yet, like I said, the platform for sharing in a group is general and there're some things that I can't share unless I have personal time with my ppl... and I know that there are some things that even if I say it now, they will not understand until they hit that phase.

How when they get heartaches for falling out in a relationship, or didn't do that well in their exams or hit their quarter-life crisis, marriage, children... how they meet a guy they really like, but had to give it all up because they heard from the Lord a 'no', how they have to continue to hang on their faith when the whole world seems to be against them, how they're faced with a decision to uproot and go to another country just because they've heard from the Lord...

It's tough, this fathering business, and I sorta catch a glimpse of it in my spirit... when I look at them, I see the greatest potential in their lives, and my heart wells up with so much conviction to guide them and to lead them, to share with them in one fell swoop what it means to walk with the Lord...

but yet there are times I can't because simply it's not time yet, cos you don't feed beef steak to babies... hahaha... and I simply have to be patient, to watch them take their first steps of faith and always holding this tension and anxiety in my heart, afraid that they'd fall and hurt themselves and always ready, to reach out, should they begin to teeter and wobble, to catch them before they fall. And should they fall, be ready to pick them up, pat the dust off them and encourage them to walk on...


But in the meantime, I'll just continue to wait... and I'll just "sit them on my laps as ol' granpa used to do" and tell them stories about this God who is so real in granpa's life and how granpa was never the same again when he met this God at the burning bush of Mount Horeb...

hoping that in time to come, they'll remember what granpa said and remember to just walk on...

I am reminded of this vision I saw while praying with the adults before the youth cell.

I saw us, the adults as huge trees that grew big fruits. Good fruits. And these are fruits which were borne through our walk with God.

And our job is to just let the children come and eat of these fruits, and take shade under our branches; to eat of the fruits of the goodness of God in our lives which we have first tasted...

and one day, they too, will grow to be big trees and bear good fruits so that others may enjoy their fruits which they have tasted from the Lord...

Amen