Ever since God placed it in my heart to named this blog after, from what I've heard, an incredible book that I STILL haven't read yet, I find that one word 'Eternity' to be particularly important. So today as we were listening to the words of Rev. Danny, one particular point stood out. He was talking about faith, and the qualities of faith, specifically on how true faith focuses on the eternal.

He quoted Hebrews 11:13,
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth."

Just some background, the passage before it covers what is known as the Hall of Faith. Heroes from the Old Testament who are noted for their faith in God. These heroes, most of them died before seeing the destiny that they were working for. Abraham was promised descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, yet he only had 8 sons at the time of his death. That's the number of stars you see in a single Singapore night, hardly a generation. But here's the difference: he left his country, his home, even before he had a single son. He left seeing through eyes of faith, through faith in God's promise. The heroes of faith lived by faith, not by sight.

But more than that, it was the last part of the verse that caught my attention.
"And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth."

I find it funny the way that it's phrased. It's not 'and they realised that they were aliens and strangers on earth'. It's not 'and they had a sudden epiphany that they were aliens and strangers on earth'. It's written right there that they admitted it. And that means that they already were aliens, they just didn't admit that.

It's written thrice in the bible that we are 'aliens and strangers' in this world, and it says quite clearly that we're not quite meant to be in this world. I mean we are in it, we're just not of it. The God in us sets us apart, makes us consecrated. Jesus Himself said in John 15:19, in words that are so good I'm not gonna para-phrase them.

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

That's pretty much the reason. God loves us, chose us, pulled us out and made us a new creation in Him. And because we're different, we're no longer of the world.

But I don't think I've fully admitted that yet.

And I think many of us haven't either.

If we did, I don't think we'd try so hard to act like we weren't.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we should lock ourselves in our rooms for 6 hours a day and do nothing but read the Bible over and over and over again. Sure, we're told not to be of the world, but we are commanded to be in it. We'd be terrible evangelists if we became too heavenly for any earthly good. It's just that there's a fine line between understanding the culture of this generation and delving fully into it.

We aren't creatures of the temporal. As much as we would love to try, we've been brought to the knowledge of a life beyond. Even those who don't know Christ can agree with me when I say that there are those moments in our lives where we just stop to ponder what life is all about, our purpose, and what happens beyond. As King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11, "He has set Eternity in the hearts of men". Something inside us just tells us, reminds us, every once in a while, that there's something beyond this life that we live.

We're new creations. We have Eternity set in our hearts and been blessed with knowledge of a love that will carry us through it. We're aliens and strangers in this world, and our eyes should be set on a far further destination. Let's be Driven by Eternity.

There are four words in the Bible that I love. Well, many, but four that stand out. Four words that pop up often enough that I remember :) and a few weeks back God brought them back to me.

They're found in 1 Corinthians 10:13, NKJV version
"but God is faithful".

If you've read the whole chapter, you'd know that Paul mostly talks about temptations, about the things that the early Israelites went through. They had their incredible experiences with God, and they had their falling away from God. And Paul calls them examples for us, examples that we would do well to learn from. Basically, the heart of Paul's message is this: don't be confidant in yourself, put your confidence in God.

I find this echoed in Psalms 118:8-9, "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes." The words come from King David, a man spent a good portion of his life on the run, in danger, or in some form of instability and uncertain threats. But the words that he wrote echoes great wisdom, wisdom that comes battered by experience. It is better to put your hope in the LORD, than any trust in man. And that's the reason why I love those four words.

but God is faithful.

You can put your hope, your trust in God, because God is faithful.

Even when we aren't.

If you were to look at your relationship with God like that of a marriage (something that the Bible talks about, with the church as the bride and Jesus as the groom), in a week we probably commit more adultery than all the women on Desperate Housewives in those six seasons. Combined.

We don't do good as faithful people to God. We're like the slutty woman in a B-grade soap opera who continually cheats on her boyfriend, though he remains eternally faithful to her. And although she always goes on about how their relationship is 'non-exclusive', but he's all like "I'm the one for you" (why yes, I am secretly referencing that scene between Brooke and Lucas from One Tree Hill season 3, wayyy back). I'll admit it, we make terrible brides sometimes.

And that's why I love those four words.

But God is faithful.

I don't know about you, but I've been pretty unfaithful. My supposedly regular times spent alone with God every day hasn't been so regular, I've been focusing my attention on trying to be someone better than on being God's child, and I haven't been the best friend I can be lately. I've failed, and truth be told, been found pretty faithless at times.

But God is faithful.

That's His promise to us. It's a promise of grace for the prodigal ones. No matter how far we are from home, He's still gonna run to the gate to meet us with an embrace the moment He sees us coming over the horizon. No matter how messed up, screwed up, faithless and fallen we are, He still loves us. Our wildest imaginings of what His love is like would only be a drop of water in the ocean that it really is. It's a love that simply won't ever end.

So I'm hoping that this is a reminder for all of us who are hurting, who are far, who are faithless and lost in ourselves.

Maybe you feel like you've failed Him,

maybe you're stuck in lies that you told,

maybe you're struggling with sin that's slowly started taking control,

maybe you're broken,

maybe you've hit rock bottom.

But God is faithful.

Yes, we're faithless

But God is faithful.

(while writing this entry on the train, I managed to lose my PSP :( oh sacrifice)

I tend to have a love-hate relationship with truth. Sort of like a Mr. Darcy-Elizabeth Bennet kind of thing, but with less 19th century suits and Lady Catherine scolding. I love the way truth tends to blow my mind, but I hate the way it forces me to come to terms with certain things. Cause the truth about truth (hee hee) is that I prefer ignorance. I love not having to know what's wrong with me. Truth just works that way. If tells you pretty uncompromisingly what's up with you, what needs correction, what needs to be changed

Sure, the expression is overused, but mostly because it's true. Truth IS like a light. It tends to pierce our darkness. It cuts straight through who we think we are, through the image we put up, and stirs up the things we'd rather leave to settle quietly. Truth tends to cut, uncompromisingly. Yes, truth sets you free, but it has a habit of hurting like a bugger before it does.

But here's the amazing thing :) God doesn't do just truth alone. I think about Jesus and the Adulterous Woman in John 8. Here you have Jesus, pretty much the human symbol for truth and righteousness; and then you have the adulterous woman (pretty much says it all). An angry mob has just pretty much thrown this woman in front of Him, getting all ready to stone her for her sins. Jesus looks up at all of them, stands His ground and protects her from their condemnation. That in itself is an amazing show of grace. But what's even more amazing is the last part of this story. After Jesus has done His part, the crowd has slowly disappeared, the woman wipes off the tears of sadness and fear from her eyes, and looks up to her saviour. He straightens up, looks her in the eye, and asks:

"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir."
"Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin."

God doesn't just do truth, He does forgiveness. It's this amazing process where He looks straight at you, through the images you put up, to the truth of who you are. Like a member of the Na'vi would say, He sees you. The only person in the entire universe who could possibly judge you truly impartially looks straight into who we are, and chooses not condemnation but love. He chooses freedom from the bondages that pull us down over condemning us. It's just like that line in Chris Tomlin's Indescribable, "You see the depths of my heart but You love me the same".

We learn to be truthful to others when we first learn to be truthful to ourselves. We learn to be truthful with ourselves when we let God reveal the truth about us to us. When we realise that there's nothing to hide from the one who is always watching over us. Who comes not only with truth, but with love. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Romans 5:20).

And why is truth so darn important? Because anything that isn't true is false. God keeps it real friends, that's the way He roll. The fake stuff knows much better than to mess with Him.

Truth friends, truth.