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THE BAT,THE
CAT,AND THE RAT
Genesis 1:25 (King
James Version)
"And God made
the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and
every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw
that it was good."
There were three friends living on a lovely estate,on the fruit tree
lived the bat;in the villa lived the cat;and in a hole under the villa
lived the rat. One day they decided to trade places since they were
bored with their individual daily routines.
The rat took the place of the bat and had a hard time getting to the
top of the tree. Once at the top,the rat felt on top of the world,then
suddenly the hawk on its daily patrol sighted the rat and swooped down
to make a kill. The rat barely escaped by dashing frightfully into a
hole in the old tree branch.
The cat managed to get into the hole leading to the rat's home,and it
initially felt like the safest place in the world. Thereafter it
realised that it was too dark,cold,and stinking. To make matters
worse,it was nearly caught for lunch by the ferret.
The bat seemed to inherit the best lot of them all-there was enough to
eat but the home of the cat seemed too bright and warm. It managed to
escape being shot dead by the angry master of the villa.
Within only an hour,the friends realised the folly of their
decisions,and resorted to their respective callings in life.
Genesis 1:26-27 (King
James Version)
"And God said, Let us
make man in our image,
after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth."
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them."
Jeremiah
1:5 (Amplified Bible)
"Before I formed you in
the womb I knew [and] approved of you
[as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set
you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the
nations."
1 Corinthians
7:17 (King James Version)
"But as God
hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so
let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches."
1 Corinthians
7:20 (King James Version)
"Let every man
abide in the same calling wherein he was called."
The parable and the scriptures above clearly imply the issue of
destiny,and the relationship between identity and destiny. An identity
crisis sends one's destiny into 'sleep mode'.
The truth of 'destiny' may be hard to be accepted by one's intellect
but is easily embraced by one's faith. Destiny could be either
corporate or personal-it is on the latter that we will focus.
With respect to
this
issue,there are two main schools of thought. The first affirms that God
is the Master of one's destiny while the second insists that man is the
master of his destiny. It is the humble view of this writer that the
reality is that of a 'partnership' in which God is the 'senior partner'
and man is the 'junior partner'. Just as man was not created to be
God's 'robot',God is not man's 'master computer'. Every person is
precious and unique in the sight of God despite anyone's present social
status which may be favourable or not.
To activate this 'partnership',each person has to be reconciled to God
by faith in Jesus Christ as one's personal Lord and Saviour (2
Cor.5:20)[one's
first love] even if one claims to already know one's destiny.
The reason for reconcilation is that everyone was born in sin,and sin
estranges us from God who is our 'senior partner' (Rom 3:23;6:23).
Upon activation of this 'partnership',one should prayerfully and
sincerely consider the following V's
as keys to fulfill one's destiny:-
- Vision:-This
is the mental picture of one's destiny even without supernatural
phenomena (Prov.29:18a;Acts 26:19).
- Vigour:-This
is the physical,mental,and spiritual strengths to make one's destiny a
reality even when facing opposition (Isa 26:4;Zech 4;6).
- Virtue:-This
is personal integrity that is Christ-like. This secures and maximises
one's chances of fulfillment (Gal 5:22-23;2 Pet 1:2-11). This is one
key that is so easily neglected,ignored or despised throughout human
history and the dire consequences affect not only the individual but
others too.
While these keys are not exclusive,they are
essential to
the discovery,pursuit,and fulfillment of destiny.
For any destiny that seems 'trapped' or 'lost',in
Jesus Christ there is complete deliverance and restoration!
When all other hopes fail,hope in God never fails!!!
1 Corinthians
7:24 (King James Version)
"Brethren, let every man,
wherein he is called, therein abide
with God."
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