20141026_Rainbows & Book chaser of David Wilkerson in USA to Canada Ps25:14

Ps25:14 "The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him and he will show them his covenant" -KJV
Ps 25:14 "God-friendship is for God-worshippers, they are the ones he confides in" -The Message


This verse spoke to me during this longest ever vacation that I took for a long while. Simply because rainbows depict His covenant with His children.  Shakespeare quote" My heart leaps for joy when I behold a rainbow" Isn't this what makes your heart leaps for that simple free joy as you 'catch' that rainbow? It is that kind of father and child heartbeat.  You simply just knew it. 

This is the testimony of the faithfulness of my covenantal YHWH as I begin with this memorable rainbows painted in the skies in USA - Canada during this trip from 12/10/2014 - 28/10/2014

Do you know this late David Wilkerson? This is the blog which I have been following as part of devotional readings.  But he passed on in 2010 in a car accident. However his blog is still kept alive by his son Gary who wrote this book about his dad which was just released in Aug/ Sep 2014.

So here is the testimony to begin with ....

When John told me about going to NYC,  I was so curious to find out what this city was all about- Lady Liberty (which is actually also called ISIS surprisingly) and the well known arty creative people are , homosexuality is highly promoted in this city of "freedom - do as you like",  the famous Wall Street bulls and bears ,  the 'twin towers' WTC shocker of 9/11/2011,   the 'romantic' Empire State where "Sleepless in Seatle" was shown......  

Before I even knew about this trip , on 15/8/2014 , I wrote  wanting to buy online the book on late David Wilkerson - written by his son Gary. But the postage was high and so they did not send over. Much as I wanted this book which was only launched recently, I even asked my pilot friend to check when his next flight to NYC would be & he had graciously agreed to try to get it for me in his next flight. Well, before this happened, I was in NYC for the first time due to a sudden vacation plan with another couple! That was how sudden this trip came about!

Our time in NYC was only a 2 days trip before we drove up north to Toronto.  On 13/10/2014-I googled and it was one of my intentions to visit this Times Square church.  However, after watching the Jersey Boys in one of the theatres on the last nite in NYC, I decided to walk to the next block where the church was. Unfortunately, it was already past 9:30 and so it was closed. Only managed to take a photo.

[August Wilson Theatre presenting "JERSEY BOYS -The story of Frankie Valli and the FOUR SEASONS,  on the 40th plus West street , Broadway , NYC - Times Square]

[ Times Square Church on the next block of street at 51st West Street]

I am a rainbow chaser.  And on this trip, my personal angel sent by our dear Father gave me THREE awesome rainbows! 

1. The first was at WTC on our 2nd day in NYC.. John first sighted it and pointed to me! 

2. Then the second was on route from Boston to Montreal- I couldn't catch it as we were in the car, but oh boy, I was so excited as I knew there would be a rainbow as it was drizzling and the sun just peeped thru the clouds in moments!  I think I am quite good now at catching rainbows .LOL.

3. But the strangest one was when we were in Washington DC- the last leg of this long trip.  Just as we were walking past the Washington DC monument behind us, I happened to turn my head and to my surprise , the sky was a slight patch of purple dash and there hidden on the left of the monument was a tiny little quadrant of a rainbow! I kept telling JOhn - this is the strangest rainbow at the time of the day! No rain, super sunny and yet rainbow!And with the Iphone- I captured it!

U know the Lord must have heard my inner desires to wanting to read about this late David Wilkerson.  This is my memorable testimony which would stay with me in years to come - apart from the 3 awesome rainbows sighting.  The one I saw at WTC was kind of uplifting cos it was kind of sad walking around those two big black holes where the twin towers used to stand. The one on route to Montreal was an expectant one - I just knew there would be one so that I can point out to my friend's wife who was beside me in the car. So it was the third one that cause me to view it was the strangest among the strange.

Reflections

I could only now look back and give thanks and rejoice.  We did not stay in Washington DC itself but an hour away in a little suburb called Columbia in Maryland state.  On Friday nite, the last but 2 days on this long vacation, John and I decided to take the car out ourselves while the couple friend went back to the service apt to rest.  And in this so called little shopping area , we found out that Walmart was not there but there were rows of little shop units.  JOhn pointed to me there was a christian bookshop right ahead of us and so we decided to go in to take a look.  At the counter, I asked them for this book - the guy went thru the PC and then told me it was only available in Spanish! So well, I told him, nope - I needed the english one. Deep in my heart, I found it weird - u know- here is America- USA= English english english and you carry that book in Spanish? LOL.  So I decided to walk around and hey presto = I found that book! I took it to the counter and the guy kept telling me - how in the world did his inventory system showed it was it Spanish? And we laughed!

But to me, it was no laughing matter. Deep in inside- I told myself - hey went to internet, no order taken, went to Times Square - too late and it was closed. And right in the nowhere in an obscure little suburb, despite the initial Spanish hoo ha - I still managed to get it! Woah! I can only be so humbled that it was never a human effort but a divine one. This is a divine exchange once again.  And the fact is known, The Lord wants me to read what the son Gary wrote about his father David! LOL.  It is like the divine exchange between the Cross and the Switchblade (Late David's first written book in 1963 about the drug guy Nicky Cruz who turned to Christ ). Late David went from Pennsylvania to NYC to confront the gangs who ran the streets.  He had seen the photograph of the 7 teens who were the members of a gang called Eygptian Dragons and were tried for the murder of Michael Farmer. Crazy David wanted to say something in the Court that day and was thrown out. That began Wilkerson's lifelong mission to the rejected and ignored.  Todate his monumental book, THE CROSS & THE SWITCHBLADE , which chronicled the conversion of gang leader Nicky Cruz has sold more than 16mio copies worldwide.  He foundered Times Square church and he shocked his staff when he had the vision from the Lord the day before Black Monday 1987 - he and a team went to Wall Street and they witnessed a horrific bunch of traders in tears that very day when the stock exchange simply crashed.  

WHAT DO YOU SEE? LEE KUA SI MI??

So on sun 26/10/2014, we were travelling back from DC to NYC to catch our nite flight back to spore, I read this whole book from its first chapter to it last 16 in the car!.  In the opening introduction was the question the late David asked his son Gary "WHAT DO YOU SEE?" For me, this book was very interesting as it wrapped up my USA trip. I began to appreciate NYC TimesSquare and its several states much better as I read thru the eyes of this narative done in this book.  Perhaps with such short time in the city, I was not able to fully appreciate the place. Wished I read it earlier before I came, but guess it is still the Lord's sovereign timing.

I am so glad that I am so loved by the Lord as seen from His ever signs of his great covenant.(To get 3 rainbows just in these 2 weeks was abundance blessings!) Ps 25:14 was a personal verse to me in this trip.  A man like late David who ministered widely touching millions yet was questioning about if ever God ever loved him at all was rather quite a shocking revelation as Gary his son wrote about what his dad shared in the moments in his sunset years as he stepped down in his life ministry.  

So now my longest vacation had ended today, WHAT DID I SEE? Ha Ha

I think I see His Beauty all around me. His everlasting love of covenant for his beloved ones.  Rainbows are indeed a sign of HIs love . He painted it in Genesis after the great flood promising never to do that again. He had the rainbow shining around the great throne in Revelation.  He is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the Last. 

Never ever ever ever doubt His love for his Beloved children.

Be that God-worhipper that He desires so that He will confide in us.  

Isn't  that most awesome revelation that we need to time out and spend time with our Heavenly FATHER and not to be too caught up with other worldly techy distractions that crowd out our simple life? Time to slow down and stroll with Him in the park, throughout the 4 seasons in our life.  ( (Ever wonder how Frankie Valli got his group name "Four Seasons" - go and watch the movie or musical to find out! It was very funny !) He paints a different picture for each season in our life. If only we can embrace and understand the sign of times.  Get ready our hearts to welcome Him anytime anywhere anyhow. Be ready.  Are You?

In the bible, it says that we may have ears but do not hear, eyes but do not perceive.  Lee Kua Si Mi? What do you see? It has nothing got to do with our pair of natural eyes but that of spiritual eyes.  Can you see ? That is the question...

20141005-Zechariah 1: YHWH Remembers #1 Night Vision : Horses & Myrtle Tree

(Mui's simple sketch of a horse...learnt from the recent Cavliar show held in Marina Bay, Sep 2014)

Zech1 :The FIRST NIGHT VISION - THE RED HORSES, SPECKLED AND WHITE AMONG THE MYRTLE TREES............

Last Wednesday , a group of us went to watch "CAVALIAR" - some 50 odd horses performance with acrobats.  This horse show was their first foray into the Asia market (From Canada).

Today is the beginning of my book study on second last book of the OT - Zechariah. Its name means YWHW Remembers during the period 520-470 BC - the period of the temple rebuilding.  Interestingly, my church has been given the green light by the authorities to commence the rebuilding of the church not too long ago.  Pretty costly in fact as the additional cost had increased about 2-fold from original budget due to the requirement to compliance with regard to capacity issues...The land which the church now sat on is not even a Freehold but with remaining lease of less than 49 years thereabout.

Zechariah mentioned the Lord of Hosts (Not Horses :).... many times in this book. He saw in particular 8 visions, of which the opening chapter is this one about the red horses and the man who stood among the myrtle trees.

I saw many interesting horses during CAVALIAR. But I did not recall seeing a RED one. LOL.  I remember in Rev the white, red, black and pale horse. I pondered - got red horse meh? Never seen one! The following extract kind of satisfied my curiousity!

http://www.heraldmag.org/2004/04so_8.htm
Vision One

The first vision of horses among myrtle trees is recorded in Zechariah 1:7-17, and it is a beautiful picture of the peaceful kingdom on earth: “I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom and behind him there were red horses, speckled and white.”

Here God shows Zechariah the end from the beginning by giving him a glimpse of the ultimate goal of his entire Divine Plan of the Ages, the peaceable kingdom of righteousness. The main character in this vision, the man on the red horse, pictures our Lord Jesus. It is through his work of redeeming and restoring mankind that this kingdom will be established. Horses usually symbolize doctrines, and so the red color of this horse represents the doctrine of the ransom sacrifice, the merit of Jesus’ blood which satisfies God’s justice and secures man’s release from the penalty of Adamic death. The myrtle trees symbolize perfect mankind. White flowers on the myrtle trees suggest the righteousness of those who have completed their walk up the highway of holiness. The words “in the bottom” indicate that this peaceful meadow is in a valley—protected on all sides by mountains, the mountain of God’s everlasting kingdom.

What might the other horses represent?There are two reasonable interpretations. Horses usually symbolize doctrines. As the first four of seven seals on a scroll are opened in Revelation 6, John beholds four horses—white, red, black, and pale—with riders; these have come to be known as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. These horses represent the corruption of truth during the beginning of the Gospel age. The truth was at first pure when our Lord and the apostles were on the scene, pictured by the white horse. Then errors crept in such as the trinity, and the mass, which denied the ransom sacrifice. The red horse pictures these corruptions of truth. Later more errors darkened the truth to an even worse state pictured by the black horse. Finally the teachings of the nominal systems were devoid of any truth, pictured by the pale, colorless horse. The sequence of horses picturing the corruption of truth was white, red, black, and pale.

Perhaps Zechariah’s horses in their improving colors—red, spotted, and white in that order—represent the atonement doctrines of resurrection, sin offering, and restitution which make possible man’s progress up the highway of holiness from a sinful, red condition, through a spotted condition as the old Adamic patterns of thought and habit are eradicated, to a white or perfect condition.

Another possible interpretation of these horses is suggested by the words of verses 9-11:“These are they [i.e., the horses] whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth, and they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.”

The horses appear to be watchful sentries on the earth who observe and report back to the man on the red horse that all is well. These faithful sentries, sent by the Lord to walk to and fro in the earth, might well picture the ancient worthies. In the last vision we will see a use of various colored horses to represent classes of people in God’s plan.

But whether the horses represent doctrines that lead to mankind’s perfection, or the ancient worthies, the picture of the kingdom, the ultimate goal of God’s plan, is presented with clarity and beauty in this first of Zechariah’s eight visions.

Reflections
I am pretty afraid of horses. Sat on one many years ago in Seattle which trotted for some hours out in the forest.  So afraid of being kicked at as it was a pretty big horse!

Well, the corruption that a red horse might signify in the truths is really something that is happening all over the world at this point of penning. Shocking escalation of happenings - Ebolas, Occupy Central, Hong Lim "Heckling" , sickening beheadings , volcano eruption in Japan without even a puff of sign which now has killed more than 48 trekkers (who weren't even aware that they are trekking on an angry mountain just about to erupt! No one knew about its impending spew of ashes!!) ...and a certain mega church now under the spotlight in the court with regard to its use of so called church building fund.  Sigh....

Guess, Zechariah's time was the rebuilding of the temple. But it is more than the physical construction of a temple .  The Lord urges all in the first few verses in Chapter 1. "TURN YOU UNTO ME ..AND I WILL TURN UNTO YOU.." TURN FROM YOUR EVIL WAYS AND FROM YOUR EVIL DOINGS...It is simply a call of repentance of hearts.  Isn't it?? Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Paul wrote in Act 17:24-28 " God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwell not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he give to all life and breath, and all things, And has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined the times before the appointed, and the bounds of their inhabitation, that they should seek the Lord , if they haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.  For in him we live and move and have our being."