The Six-Day War Miracle

God created the Six-Day War Miracle.

God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great and prosperous nation with millions of people.

But Israel had its people living in slavery in Egypt for generations, had its people wandering in wilderness for years, had its people with Jewish identification decimated and dispersed by the Roman Empire, and had its 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust by the Nazis during World War II.

But God had not forgotten His chosen people, as evidenced by His many modern miracles, including the Six-Day War Miracle.

On June 5, 1967, a war broke out between Israel and Egypt and other Arab countries in the Middle East. The Egyptians had two times more soldiers, four times more aircrafts, and five times more tanks than the Israelites. The objective of the war was annihilation of the Jews—the “Second Holocaust.”

Given that there was no involvement and no support from Great Britain and the United States, while Egypt was backed up by the Soviet Union, the anticipated annihilation of Israel was certain and imminent.

But a miracle happened. The war lasted only six days. By the end of the day on June 5, Israeli pilots had won full control of the skies over the Middle East. Israel had destroyed 450 planes of Egypt while Israel lost only19 of its 100 planes.

Due to many mistakes and false reports of victories reported by the Egyptians and their allies, the war ended in lightning speed of victory for Israel within six days.

The miracle of the “Six-Day War” continued like the fig tree: Israel not only survived but also thrived, and eventually it was recognized as an independent nation by the United Nation.

Living by faith: God is timeless.  Humans must have patience and perseverance with faith, trust, and obedience in God. Human expectations only distance themselves from God. 

Stephen Lau

miracles

A Fast Lifestyle

A fast lifestyle is often focusing on excitement, extravaganza, and risk-taking. This mindset is based on doing more and much more, such as daily multi-tasking, constantly going forward, always moving from one place to another, and even eating fast. Fast living has little or no consideration of the consequences.  

Yes, a fast lifestyle may give you only instant pleasure and intense excitement, but it is also stressful and even dangerous, such as car racing, car speeding, and reckless driving.

Freedom

A fast lifestyle is often “not thinking through before acting or doing.” You have your freedom not to choose it. Instead, always give yourself your freedom to slow down to reflect on your “being”—who you truly are—and why you have your non-stop “doing” to get what you want from your life. 

Bondage  

A fast lifestyle often involves drug dealing, gang banging, and even prostituting. Do not let yourself be shackled to your bondage of a life of crimes and violence.

The bottom line

Your lifespan may cover decades, during which many things, both positive and negative, might have happened to you that require your changes—changing you into a better person doing all the right things instead of the wrong things. Yes, you have your freedom to change what can be changed, as well as your freedom to wait with your patience and your perseverance for the outcome of your changes.

Living by faith: A fast lifestyle is not right for a believer, who should spend more time in prayers and reading the Words of God. Yes, God's presence is everything in your everyday life and living.

Stephen Lau

yourself be shackled to your bondage of a life of crimes and violence.

    

The bottom line

 

     Your consolidation phase spans over decades, during which many things, both positive and negative, might have happened in your life that require your changes—changing you into a better person doing all the right things instead of the wrong things. Yes, you have your freedom to change what can be changed, as well as your freedom to wait with your patience and your perseverance for the outcome of your changes.

No Separation No Divorce

The rate of divorce is skyrocketing in the United States, and the U.S. Census estimates about half of marriages end in divorce. According to relationship experts, the number of long-term relationships heading toward separation is now becoming more frequent with a longer lifespan and a growing acceptability of divorce by society. What some experts are saying is that people divorce because they’ve a longer lifespan, and that divorce is no longer a social taboo. The breakups of couples married for several decades are “cold divorces.” The characteristics of these divorces are disengagement, distancing, and isolation from each other. These kinds of divorces are often the products of a gradual buildup. The problems might have festered for years, if not for decades, to the point where neither of the marriage partners cares any more. According to many marriage counselors, there’re benchmarks in a typical marriage where divorce is more apt to occur. 

First, divorces often happen during the initial two years of a marriage when the expected honeymoon period is replaced with the reality of having to get accustomed to each other's attitudes and living habits. 

A second point for divorces is around the five-year to the seven-year mark, when children are typically born. 

Divorces can also happen when the kids leave their parents’ homes. Many empty nesters divorce because they no longer have their children around to hold them together. Without their children, marital love disappears. 

Pepper Schwartz, professor of sociology at the University of Washington, once said: “Staying in exactly the right relationship to one another is a very hard thing to maintain every decade. People think you only get closer over time, but that's not necessarily true.” Living by faith and following God’s advice, you choose to “fix” your marriage instead of letting separation happen. You do not throw away your dress before it no longer fits you; instead, you "change" your body or have it "altered" to fit your body once again. Buying a new dress is just like looking for another person. 

The bottom line: You do not just walk away from a marriage you no longer like. A marriage is a "lifetime commitment" for thick and thin, for better and worse that God has destined for you. 

Remember: Failed marital relationships are painful, often causing depressive episodes and mood disorders, not to mention other health issues. A divorce precipitates many custody, financial, and legal matters, and problems that’re often lifelong. 

Living by faith: God gives you your marriage, and He will bless you with wisdom to fix it when problems occur. No separation, and no divorce. With faith, you put your trust in God.

Stephen Lau

Conflicts and Aggressions

The complexity of human relationships is the source of conflicts and aggressions. 

Your actions, especially the negative ones, are often based on your knowledge of self and of others, which is often incomplete and inadequate. Many people hardly know themselves, let alone the emotional needs of others.

So, always be mindful of the needs of others first, instead of just those of your own, and that is always the way to avoid all human conflicts.

Self-specialness

Contemporary culture focuses too much on self-centeredness that fosters the belief that “I am special” or reinforces the “mine-is-better” attitude. The net result is that you now begin to believe that your own convictions do carry more weight than those of others, who should then listen to you. So, be mindful of your self-centeredness, which is the root cause of your bias, prejudice, and non-acceptance of others.

The reality

All conflicts and aggressions—both internal and external—will arise from time to time, and they are all unstoppable, unless you deliberately and purposely let go of them. So, all conflicts and aggressions can be resolved, and sanctity can be restored if you are always soft and flexible, instead of being hard and resistant.

Freedom

You have your freedom to overcome your fear of being rejected by others. Your freedom is your choice to accept the good and the bad in yourself as well as in others around you. Remember, nobody is perfect, and you just cannot take the good and reject the bad.

You have your freedom to avert your conflicts with others through your awareness to seek and validate the so-called “truths” perceived by your distorted thinking mind living in your flesh.

Bondage

Not accepting the imperfections in others will hold you in your bondage of your incapability of growing and developing good relationships with others.

Your “distorted” perceptions of self and of others is your bondage to your conflicts and disharmony with others.

1.5. Harmony

Knowing the importance of internal balance and harmony holds the key to having good relationships with your family, your friends, your colleagues, and, most importantly, your loved one or your marriage partner.  

The ancient Chinese philosophy of life and living may throw some light on the role of balance and harmony in good human relationships.

The Five Elements

Thousands of years ago, the Chinese began to use the Five Elements to describe interactions and relationships between things that happened in human lives.

According to the ancient Chinese wisdom, the Five Elements were wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, and now they are still believed to be the fundamental elements of everything in the universe, between which interactions occur, and thus creating the balance and the harmony.

The Five Elements balance and complement one another to create internal balance and harmony. And this is how:

Water nourishes trees or wood.

Without wood, there will be no fire (which burns wood).

Without fire burning wood, there will be no earth (the ashes from the burnt wood).

Without earth, there will be no metal (from the earth itself). 

Likewise, your relationships with others should also need internal balance and harmony.

A natural cycle

These Five Elements also create a natural cycle of all things, both visible and invisible:

Fire heats metal to produce water; without metal, there will be no water; without water, there will be no tree or wood; without fire, there will be no earth. Fire melts metal; metal cuts wood; wood separates earth; earth absorbs water; water smothers fire. 

The wisdom is that all things follow a natural cycle: what goes up must also come down.  That is, success is followed by failure, just as life is inevitably followed by death. The wisdom is to accept and embrace anything and everything without any resistance.

The truth is to learn valuable lessons from them, such as letting go of your past failed relationships, and to develop your resilience to survive and thrive in your present marriage or love relationship.

The characters and characteristics of the Five Elements are as follows:

Fire: charismatic; eloquent; energetic; passionate; and volatile.

Wood: aggressive; ambitious; always challenging; and competitive.

Earth: caring and loving; compassionate and empathetic; reliable and resilient.

Metal: brave; faithful; intellectually sharp; methodical; organized; righteous; and self-disciplined.

Water: adaptable; determined; forceful; self-sufficient; and strong-willed.

Self-help

So, if you believe in the balance and harmony of the Five Elements, and how they may affect your relationships with others, then find out which Element you and others may belong to so that you may have a better understanding of others’ characters and their personalities.To find out on the Internet, you need to know the year that you and others were born, as well as the animal that you and others belong to.

There are altogether 12 animals:

Wood: Tiger and Rabbit.

Fire: Snake and Horse.

Earth: Ox, Dragon, Goat, and Dog.

Metal: Monkey and Rooster.

Water: Pig and Rat.

Think about your own nature with reference to the Five Elements. Are you strong and independent like metal, bold and pioneering like wood, soft and flexible like water, fiery and passionate like fire, or nurturing and receptive like earth?

The reality 

No matter what, internal balance and harmony is the essence of any good human relationship.

What you see in everyone and everything around you reflects you, or what is inside you. Neither is internal peace a myth, nor are internal conflicts a condition of existence. Inner peace is an acquired state of the mind that recognizes the importance of internal balance and harmony.

So, how do you have internal balance and harmony within yourself?

Look deep inside you to have a better understanding of what you really seek in your marriage partner, or from other individuals, including your children and close members of your family. Always use your consciousness of breath to go deep into your inner being with your mindfulness. Practice meditation every day.

When your mind is quiet—in absence of the fear of the sound of silence—your mind can then experience your clarity of thinking  to enable you to know yourself better to develop your good relationships with others.

Freedom

Your freedom to use your understanding of your own personality and that of others may maintain your internal balance and harmony to avoid many conflicts and disagreements. 

Bondage  

Your bondage to your everyday stress is often a result of the lack of internal balance and harmony in yourself.

Living by faith: God gives you love and peace. Your faith provides you with strength to suppress your anger and negative emotions.

Stephen Lau

Money Fantasies and Money Miseries

Money Fantasies

Not being rich and yet wanting to live richly is one of the most common money fantasies. 

An Illustration  

There was the story of a beautiful and sophisticated woman in her mid-twenties who wrote to an investment counseling company looking for a list of eligible bachelors with earnings of at least $600,000 a year. That woman had money fantasies in her mind. According to experts, using marriage as an investment is a money fantasy, and no more than a "bad" investment bargain—just like investing into a shrinking currency. Just imagine the beauty of that woman would shrink over the years, while the $600,000 might grow over the long haul. So, marrying into money, buying the lottery, and winning at the casino are all money fantasies that are not approved by God because they come from greed and gluttony.

Money Miseries

Money miseries happen to many who always feel dissatisfied, frustrated, insecure, and insolvent. This mental condition suffered by many is often a result of their constant exposure to media news of the rich and the famous, as well as their own perceptions of “possessions equal satisfaction.” Spending more than earning and living from paycheck to paycheck (70 percent of consumers, according to The Wall Street Journal) often lead to struggling with money miseries that ultimately end up in going broke. 

Even wealthy celebrities went broke, such as Mike Tyson, a famous boxing champion earning over $300 million dollars, ended up in bankruptcy in 2003; and Michael Jackson, a recording artist, dancer, singer, and songwriter, earning over $500 million dollars, was heavily in debt when he died in 2009.

According to the Harvard Business Review, money and happiness are not positively correlated, because wealth may make people less generous and more domineering. In addition, money may not bring out the best of an individual: the more money that individual has, the more focused on self that individual may become, and so the less sensitive to the needs of people around, as well as the more probable to doing all the wrong things due to the feeling of right and entitlement.

An Illustration of Going from Riches to Nothing

Barbara Woolworth Hutton, also known as “the poor little rich girl”, was one of the wealthiest women in the world during the Great Depression. She’d experienced an unhappy childhood with the early loss of her mother at age five and the neglect of her father, setting her the stage for a life of difficulty in forming relationships.

Married and divorced seven times, she acquired grand foreign titles, but was maliciously treated and exploited by several of her husbands. Publicly, she was much envied for her lavish lifestyle and her exuberant wealth; privately, she was very insecure and unhappy, leading to addiction and fornication.

Barbara Hutton died of a heart attack at age 66. At her death, the formerly wealthy Hutton was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the exploitation of her husbands, as well as her own lavish and luxurious lifestyle.

Barbara Hutton was the unhappy poor little rich girl! She was widely reported in the media, and her story was even made into a Hollywood movie: “The Poor Little Rich Girl.”

The bottom line: Many Americans earn plenty of money to live a great lifestyle but end up in money misery with their money blown away.

Living by faith: Believe in a powerful God. Beware of money—or rather the love of money, which is idolatry obsessed with “money-lust.”

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (I Timothy 6:10) According to the Bible, money is the second most powerful god. So, beware of money—or rather the love of money, which is idolatry obsessed with “money-lust.”

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (I Timothy 6:10)

Stephen Lau

Loving Others

Loving Others

Loving others leads to the understanding of “oneness with all life”—humans are inter-connected with one another. Understanding this basic law of nature that “no man is an island” and all humans are somehow "connected" with one another enables the alignment of the body, the mind, and the soul to live in this complex and complicated world.

“Oneness with all life” leads to the love of others around and to the awareness of the presence of God or that of a Higher Being. Genuine love of others is the first step toward spirituality.

Empathy and Sympathy

Empathy is more than just sympathy. It’s a deep understanding of the painful experiences of another individual that are as meaningful as one’s own because either one has experienced them, or one can somehow realistically put oneself in that individual’s shoes. Sympathy, on the other hand, is only an acknowledgment of another individual’s tragic and traumatic emotions and feelings, as well as an offering of comfort and assurance to that individual.

Empathy is inherent human goodness that may not be easily expressed as sympathy due to lack of courage. 

Sympathy involves only an understanding of another individual’s problems, such as what it’s like to be poor without a job or to be abused physically by someone, while one may still somehow "distance" oneself from that individual. But empathy, on the other hand, involves one’s feeling that individual’s heart in one’s own heart and seeing that individual’s problems with one’s own eyes. Empathy is not a natural human habit; it must be cultivated and developed before it can exist in the heart and the mind.

An Illustration

There was a Jewish story of a man who died and was shown two images in both heaven and hell, in which people were sitting at both sides of a long table with a meal before each of them.  He noticed that the people in hell were starving, because each of them had a spoon that was "much too long" to fit into his or her own mouth. However, the people in heaven were well-fed, because each was using the same long spoon to feed the person across the table.

Compassion and Loving-kindness

Compassion means “suffering together.” It’s an emotion or a feeling that arises when one is seeing another individual’s intense suffering, such that one feel motivated to relieve the suffering from that individual.

Loving-kindness is an act of kindness, motivated by love, and expressed to one’s fellow human beings. Loving-kindness is expressed in human behaviors. To optimize this behavior, one develops a mindset for love and care, which should become a habit or second nature.

Loving-kindness is also an act of love that one consciously expresses to another individual simply because that individual has the same desire to be happy and to avoid suffering. Accordingly, one’s response reflects one’s own love for that individual, irrespective of the misbehavior of that individual toward one. However, that doesn’t imply that one should accept, approve, or even condone the inappropriate behavior of that individual.

Loving-kindness is an attempt to change the inappropriate behavior of that individual, irrespective of the outcome, because the attempt is out of one’s compassion and love for that individual.

Follow the practice of Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. According to Dalai Lama, on the very first meeting with any individual, he trains himself to feel that the individual is simply “a fellow human being with the same desire to be happy and to avoid suffering as myself.” With that oneness-of-all mindset, Dalai Lama then becomes immediately “connected” to everybody, without any exception.

Also, follow in the footsteps of C.S. Lewis, author, and intellectualist, who shows how one can “discipline” any negative emotions by giving another person “a big smile” and behaving as if he were a “loving” person.

Living by faith: Showing empathy and sympathy, as well as compassion and loving-kindness to those around you is a strong testament to your faith and obedience to your loving God. 

Stephen Lau

Timeless Transformation

With faith in God, transformation can happen right away, or it may take many years.

An illustration

Esther Chan came to Hong Kong from China. She had lived an unhappy childhood: her father was abusive and alcoholic, driving her mother to several suicidal attempts. Esther was expelled from her high school due to her compulsive stealing and her drug abuse and addiction.

At age 19, Esther married her first husband and had her baby girl. But her life was meaningless and worthless, giving her hopelessness, when she broke up with her husband who took custody of their daughter. Esther’s adult life began to spiral out of control when she became involved in drug trafficking and was subsequently sentenced to prison four times.     

In the prison, Ester heard for the first time from the pastor about the love of Jesus and His forgiveness. But Esther was unable to express her faith in the hope of unconditional love and forgiveness from God.

Then, Esther was reconnected with the family of a boyfriend she had grown up with. His mother took Esther to church. At one time, Esther even made a public stand to declare her belief in Christ. But Esther had no true repentance or genuine obedience to Jesus as her Savior and Lord.

So, Esther continued for years her life of addiction and indulgence in sins and wrongdoings.

However, one day, a miracle happened in her life that ultimately turned her around completely.

Esther was renting a room in an apartment lived by scoundrels and prostitutes. One evening, after taking her drugs, she took to the street where she countered a man, and they talked for a while. Later, she awoke in her bed and found that she was naked. She had no recollection of what had happened to her. Then, to her surprise, Esther found a hundred-dollar bill lying beside her.

At that very moment, Esther suddenly recalled a companion of her youth who broke her addiction through a gospel program. At that very moment, Esther, too, somehow wanted to use her hundred-dollar bill to turn herself to God to break her addiction.

After more than three decades of addiction, Esther finally went to Barnabas Christian Love Service for drug addicts in Hong Kong. She became a “born-again” Christian, who forgave her father, her ex-husband, and all those who had abused her in the past.

At Barnabas Christian Love Service, Esther met her future husband, Andy, who was also an addict but a believer. Later, they got married. After her rehabilitation, Esther was recruited as a “Sharing Minster” at Barnabas Christian Love Service. With the blessings from God, Esther continued with her theology studies, graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in pastoral ministry. In 2021, she began her full-time ministry at Barnabas Christian Love Service.

Esther Chan’s long and winding belief journey is a strong testament to the miracle of hope from God that might take years, if not decades, to become a reality.

Living by faith: Believe in God with hope that demands patience and perseverance. Yes, God can and will transform any believer with trust and obedience.

Stephen Lau