Lessons I Learnt From Observing Our Pet Dog - Part 1

Our pet beagle, Scot, had been with the family for slightly more than 13 years and on reflection, I would say I have learnt many usual lessons on relationships with my Lord and Savior. You will notice from the title of this post that this is only Part 1 and so there will be a continuation as we go along.

As a puppy, Scot was a very playful beagle. As our son Adrian would phrase it, Scot had been redeemed from the cage and having tasted freedom from bondage, he (I use this pronoun as Scot is a male beagle) was pretty wild and for the first three months, managed to 'chew' at least one pair of Alice's (my wife) sandals and was onto her second pair. Not wanting to lose more shoes, we decided to engage the services of a trainer to come and 'discipline' him over ten sessions. This trainer is very experienced as his father used to work for the police dog unit and trained many German shepherds and alsatians.
Indeed, after ten weeks, Scot immediately became better mannered and kind of knew his boundaries.

And this reminded me of how our Lord would allow us His children to be child-trained so as to remove all the bad behaviors and encouraged to pick up good ones. The ten weeks of training reminded me also of the need for a young believer to be discipled (followed up) to ground him/her in the faith of our Lord.
Indeed, the training was at times painful for Scot but the end result speaks for itself - he became a 'domesticated' pet. A believer in Christ, after having been followed up with proper training and guidance would be in a better position to take on the world and prosper.

So the first lesson I learnt was the need for discipleship training for the new believer.

Our Pet Dog - Scot

Back in Dec 1996 my family bought a beagle as a pet but the story behind his adoption is an episode on its own and here is what happened. Our son had a minor accident on his way home from school. As he was crossing the pedestrian crossing on the slip road next to his school (this was at about 4:30 PM?), a lady driver turning the corner and entering the slip road did not notice him and knocked into him. She stopped to help him up and even brought him to the nearest clinic and from there they took a series of x-rays of him to check for broken bones, etc.
Of course he is protected by the precious Blood of Jesus and nothing happened to him other than him being in a slight state of shock from the incident. My wife and I were not aware of the incident because he did not call us to inform of the incident and we had a shock when we reached home - there was a set of x-ray films on the dining table and a short note to say that he had an accident and that he had gone to church for a meeting. We rushed to church and took him out of the meeting and examined him and were very relieved when we found out that he was completely unharmed.

And so we sat him down the next day to talk with him to find out how we could help him and that was when we discovered he wanted to have a pet (there was no mention nor discussion prior to this incident of any pets). And so, we decided that he should get a dog since he was born in the year of the dog (Chinese calendar). We went shopping for a pet that weekend and here were some criteria - a male and not a large dog as large dogs would shed much fur and the dog cannot be of a fierce breed (like dobermann or alsatian or bull-dog, etc).

We visited one petshop and saw a number of puppies but these were all females and so we rejected all the animals there. When the owner asked what we were looking for, we said we were shopping for a small male puppy. And she gave us an address stating that there was an 'about 6-months old' puppy currently owned by a lady living in Tampines and that she was keen to sell the dog since her children had outgrown the craze over the puppy and that the dog was basically bought as a Christmas present for the children. Now we visited the house in December and so we reckoned that the dog would no longer be a puppy (technically) since it is about 15 months old since puppies are only put up for sale when they are around 3 months old and we would be approaching its second Christmas.
The sorry state of the dog touched our son's heart and his whimper for affection melted our son's heart. It was cooped up in a cage that it had outgrown and there was a start of a hunch in its posture and so we decided to save the dog and bought it from the lady. The purchase date was December 22, 1996 and so up to this day, we still celebrate its 'redemption day' as we felt we had redeemed it from its 'bondage' (the cage) and given it a new lease of life.

Gaining A SON

Having walked my daughter down the aisle, I was asked during the wedding lunch how I felt and I remembered telling my friends that it was a mixture of three emotions;

1. Relief as the important day had finally come after almost one year of planning;
2. Sadness as she will be emigrating to live in Birmingham, UK where my son-in-grace works and reside (for the time being);
3. Joy as I know she will be in good hands having picked a man whom she loves and who is a Child of Christ.


Of course, as I turned the corner and proceeded down the centre of the Chamber, my thoughts went to what I would be saving to my son-in-grace as I place my daughter's hand into his at the altar.


Nobody knew what I had planned to say to him - not even my wife - as I wanted to give it to him as a surprise and so I had been allowing the 'speech' simmer in my mind the entire week (we had a rehearsal on Monday March 29).

And so when Pastor Mathews asked me whether I had anything to say to Joshua as I handed my daughter's hand over to him in marriage, my greatest moment had arrived.
With moist eyes from a joyous attitude, I turned to Joshua and told him,
"On behalf of Aunty Alice and I, I entrust this treasure in earthen vessel to you.
Take this jewel and love her, cherish and encourage her and together, build your house in the Lord.
Today your parents receives a daughter and we have gained a son".


Now I understand how God the Father must have felt when He became Father of the Bride (the Church) and the Father of the Groom (our Lord Jesus Christ) all at the same time - such joy and love. No wonder our Lord Jesus performed His first miracle at a wedding He was invited to and He blessed them over and above all that they could ever imagine.

Satellite Photo Of Icelandic Volcanoes

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1266403/Iceland-volcano-space-The-dramatic-ash-plume-engulfing-Britain-seen-above.html
The recent volcanic eruption in South Iceland had given the airline industry a mega headache as it had grounded more than 80,000 flights around the world in just five days and the ash cloud is simply not showing signs that it is dissipating. In fact what is worrisome is that the two craters next to the one that erupted are now showing signs of activity.

What caused this massive eruption? Recent satellite photos taken of the craters have reviewed a very interesting picture. The three dark holes are the three craters and it really looks evil.
Remember what Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 24:6-8 - ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.
The devil knows that his time is ending soon and these are just some of the things he is throwing at mankind as a kind of parting shot.
So what should we do? For one thing, we should recognize what is happening and hence quicken the pace of our work in the Lord - Believers, rise up and stand for our Lord and spread the good news that salvation had already been won and is available to all who would take it.

Oil & Gas Found Off Coast Of Israel

Monday, April 12, 2010 Israel Today Staff.
Israel to become center of new 'oil and gas rush'
A top US energy industry expert believes Israel is going to soon experience an "oil and gas rush" by major Western energy development companies. Speaking to the Israeli financial newspaper Globes, Fred Zeidman said the recent discovery of a massive natural gas field off Israel's Mediterranean coast had drawn the attention of every major Western energy company.
Israeli companies Delek and Isramco have already tapped the natural gas field, together with British energy giant Noble Energy. Zeidman noted that quite often, "as soon as Noble goes to a place, many other companies follow in its wake."
That could mean an enormous economic boom for Israel and its transformation overnight into a major international energy exporter. The natural gas field in the Levant Basin (the western Mediterranean) is estimated to hold 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, making it the largest natural gas resource ever found. The area is also believed to contain at least 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Well, God the Father, in these last days, will not abandon His first love - the Children of Israel and He had caused oil and gas to appear in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel and this reminded me of the prophecy that Moses gave to the tribe of Asher in Deuteronomy 33:24-25
v24 And of Asher he said: -- Blessed with sons [is] Asher, Let him be accepted by his brethren, And dipping in oil his foot.
v25 Iron and brass [are] thy shoes, And as thy days -- thy strength.

Great things indeed are happening in the land of Israel and we will soon be witnessing more spectacular event there.God had been faithful to the children of Abraham - both Ishmael and Isaac. The descendants of Ishmael are the people who live in the Middle East while the descendants of Isaac are the Israelis. The Arabs already had their share of the wealth of the land - oil and gas - and I believe the Lord wants to prosper the nation of Israel in these last days to demonstrate to them His grace and mercy and to draw them back to Himself and to Christ.And if we were to examine the maps of ancient Israel and look at how Moses prophetically commanded Joshua to divide the land of Israel into the twelve tribes, we would have no trouble locating where exactly the oil was to be found - off the coast (Moses called it dipping in oil his foot) of Haifa in the region of Mt. Carmel. Notice that the region literally looked like a foot sticking into the sea.

Jesus Gave Us All That He Has

During the signing of the marriage certificate at my daughter's wedding, I was reminded of the marriage vow I made to my wife when we got married almost 30 years ago. The pastor kept reminding my son-in-law (I would rather coin it as son-in-grace because we are all under grace now) that what was to be his will now be hers (his wife's) and what was hers will remain as hers.

I know this sounds strange but that principle is actually very scriptural. In Revelations 21:2, "Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband", we know that the apostle John through the Holy Spirit was talking about the Church as the Bride of Christ and that we are joined with Christ when we invited Him into our hearts.
Jesus came to give us life and in the process emptied Himself of all that He had so that He could purchase us for Himself and we the Church (individually as well as corporately) receive His blessings and this is the interesting part - we only receive and we never have to give up anything. Hence the refrain - He gave us all and we gave Him nothing in return.
And to top it all, three times the pastor asked Joshua whether he had any regrets and that he still has the option to say no until he placed his signature on the marriage certificate. Three times he asked the question and each time Joshua said, 'no regrets', 'I am very sure' and this reminded me of the three occasions at the Garden of Gethsemene when the option of passing the cup of God's wrath was giving to Jesus and each time He rejected the offer and said, 'not as I will, but yours be done' and He went to the cross willingly.

Policies Are Made In The House

Two days ago, Saturday April 03, 2010, our daughter Adeline was joined in marriage to Joshua Ting at The Chambers of The Arts House, Singapore. The Chambers is the former parliament chambers of the Singapore government and it was a very lovely setting for the wedding ceremony.
As the parliament chambers was the seat of the government, the officiating pastor reminded us the significance the Lord plays in our family as well as individual lives. Ideas and suggestions may be had in our personal lives in various locations but the decisions are made and sealed in the House (of God) and indeed God the Father had indeed cut the Covenant and sealed it in His House and Christ Jesus is the Head of our House.Our Lord is a generous God and because of His great love for mankind, He decided to come down to our level and take on human form so that, being one with us, He could become our Savior when He offered up His life on the Cross for us. And because He died in our place we are no longer under the Law of sin and death but we have entered into life the moment we received Him into our hearts.
And having done that, we have aligned ourselves to receive His blessings as His word confirms it in Hebrews 10:17 and Romans 4:7-8. God is a God of grace and mercy - grace because He has given us everything that we did not deserve to receive and mercy because He chose not to give us what we deserve but took them away from us when His Son died on the cross to save us.
And all these decisions were indeed made in the Chambers of Heaven when God the Father decided to send God His Son as a Substitute for our sin. Hallelujah, all glory to Jesus for His finished work on the cross for all of us.