What I'm Doing in the New Year!

 #1. Building my Running Distances

Doing longer run since the beginning of 2022. The progress is good. I have completed 3 runs for the distance of 10km, 2 runs for 11km and last Sunday 16 January, managed to complete the 12km run.

The challenge is not the distance but it’s about the recovery after the run. How long do I need to rest & recover before repeating the same distance? For 10km run, I can do it on alternate days without problem. For 12km run, I will need to rest longer (>3 days) if I want to maintain of 6:10/km pace. I may try to do it twice in a week for January and February and see how I progress. With daily chores on hand, the recovery is quite slow. This is a big improvement from 2 years ago, when I struggle to run longer than 12km. Even then, I could only do it at a 7.00/km pace.

#2. Reading the Bible

I also started reading on the Book of Ezekiel, one or two chapter a day. In my reading, I learned about how angels (cherubim) looks like in Chapter 1. The glory of God also appeared to Ezekiel. Rainbows and haloes (verse 28) surround the Almighty. So, that may be the reason we always see angels with a halo.

Prophet’s life are very tough. Ezekiel has to live & act out the vision he saw. God asked him to lie down on the left side for 390 days (as bearing for Israel’s sin) and then lie down on the right side for 40 days (as bearing for Judah’s sin). Personally, I don’t like to sleep or lie down on my side. I prefer to lie down flat on my back and face the ceiling. This is my most comfortable sleeping posture and also for best recovery after a hard run. Better still, if I have a good pillow to raise both legs. So, I imagine how tough it will be for me if I am to do what Ezekiel has to do by lying on the side. Another frightening thing for Ezekiel is that God ask him to bake his bread with human dung! Imagine God asking me to do that!! Ezekiel had to plead with God and He changed it to cow dung. Still a tough life for him to do that for 390 + 40 days.

Another important lesson learnt from the reading is that prophets are often asked to eat the scroll that God gives. Jeremiah, too ate the Word of God.

Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became a joy to me and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
Lord God of armies. (Jer 15:16)

The word of God is sweet, as honey in the mouth. The more we eat and chew on it, the stronger we will be to meet any crisis or challenges in life. The Psalmist also declare that God’s Word is also more desire than pure gold.

They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much pure gold; Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb (Psa 19:10)

Eating God’s Word is to experience Him - meditating, think, feel and encounter Him is my life. This is the beginning of living a God-Presence life. Otherwise, Bible reading is just a chore for head knowledge.

There are many metaphors in this Book of Ezekiel. In the funeral song (chapter 19) that God told Ezekiel to sing, Israel is depicted both as a lion and a vine. The rebellion nation of Israel is given the story of two eagles (Chapter 17) representing mighty nations of Babylon and Egypt. Also, Judah is an unfaithful wife (Chapter 16), breaking away from God, even after being rescued and groomed to perfect splendour and beauty.

Another important teaching in the reading of this Book is the judgment of God on the sins of the people, priest and leaders. One question speak to me is that what idols are we harbouring in our hearts. Anything that take our thoughts, or become our centre of focus in life is deem as idols. Here calls for honest and soul-searching.

 

#3. New Testament in the original text

Last night, I was watching a Youtube that discuss on “How Badly was the New Testament Corrupted?” It’s a long 2 hour seminar presentation by Dr Daniel Wallace. You can google it yourself as it is about >2 hours long. He presented a scholarly research on the New Testament and show how much work was done to check and verify the ancient texts. All the copies that were hand written (that’s how ancient people reproduce many copies) and sure prone to spelling errors, missing words, or even a sentence. One thing for sure is that, none of our English Bible is the actual word of God. It’s just a translation or interpretation of the original text. So, it is best for us Christians to be able to read the New Testament in it’s original text – Greek. And for that, I need to take out my Greek grammar book and start revising again. And then start reading the New Testament. Slowly but surely…. (At least will read the 1st Epistle of John & Gospel of John).

So, how's your start of the New Year 2022? January is coming to en end. Let's make good use of your time - Kairos' moment! :)

 

Agape