ROOTSS: "Reflections Of One That Says So": God is Our Ellipse

Sunday, 21st March 2010

Today, Rev Reuben Ng preached an excellent message entitled "How to Seek Your Goals".

The subject of his sermon was that of Joseph, about how God had given him success and favour wherever he went.

Genesis 39

1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2 The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!"

8 But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14 she called her household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is how your slave treated me," he burned with anger. 20 Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

In Potiphar's house, he found favour with the master and was put in charge of the entire household. When he was later thrown into prison because of the false accusation by Potiphar's wife, he found favour with the warden and was put in charge of the prison.

From the above passage, there is only one reason why Joseph was successful -- it was because God was with him! It was not because he was intelligent or talented or good-looking. On the contrary, his good looks was what nearly got him in trouble because Potiphar's wife lusted for him!

Rev Reuben said that God-given success has 3 components:
1) It is evident to others
2) It draws the favour of others
3) It is beneficial to others

As I reflect upon my own current situation, I thank God because He is the only reason for where I am now. Those who know me from school days will know that I am no Bill Gates or Lee Kuan Yew. The recent D&D is a case in point. In and of my own strength, there is no way the D&D would have been turned out to be such a rousing successful. More and more of my sales colleagues have started taking notice are acknowledging me when I meet them in the office. As a result, my own department's profile (Finance tends to always be in the background) have suddenly gone up by leaps and bounds. The harvest that I recently reaped will be beneficial to my family -- I will be taking them to UK for a 2-week holiday in June.

But the crescendo of Rev Reuben's sermon was his experience when he brought his wife and kids to the Singapore Science Centre. When the ladies were freshening themselves up in the ladies, he chanced upon a carrrom board in the shape of an ellipse. An ellipse is an oval-shaped object with two focal points, F1 and F2. When he placed the striker at F1 and flicked it, it would always end up hitting the carrom seed placed at F2, no matter in which direction he flicked it.

As he repeated this numerous times, flicking the striker at different angles, a deeper spiritual truth dawned upon him. God is like our ellipse. When we start off at F1, we will always end up at our destiny F2 no matter which direction we take because we are in Him. What a revelation!

Tears flowed freely down my face because those words resonated so deeply within me. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been seeking the Lord for His direction with regards to a major decision I need to make. Thank you Lord for the perfect timing of your rhema word!

I did a YouTube search on elliptical carrom boards, but could not find anything. However, there was a YouTube video of a elliptical billiard table. Here we see how the boy places the ball at F1, strikes it with the stick and it invariably ends up in the hole located at F2.