Lord’s Day, Vol. 1 No. 1
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving
(Psalm 100:4a)
We are thankful to our great God for calling us to begin a gospel outpost here in this rented Worship Centre of the “Salvation Army” building in the “Dairy Farm” area at 500, Upper Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 678106. Welcome to this Inaugural Service.
A small group has faithfully assembled together to pray, in our “Upper Room” named “Praise Chapel”, just around the corner in this building. We have gathered fortnightly to pray at 8pm since 15 August 2013 on Thursday nights and most recently from 6 November 2013 to pray mid week on Wednesday.
As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pant our souls after the living God. Our souls thirst for the living God. And now, we shall come and appear before Him in praise and thanksgiving. In obedience to God’s call to worship, we echo the words of the psalmist:
Psalm 100:4-5 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
We worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:23) as did the woman whom our Lord Jesus met at the well in Samaria whose spiritual eyes, He opened. As a half-bred Jew, she could not enter the temple in Jerusalem, where could she worship? Jesus assured her that true worship was not confined to a locality but about the devotion of her heart and whom she worships. We worship Jesus Christ, the living and true God, with our whole heart as did that Samaritan woman whom Jesus made whole.
Two thoughts for your meditation
- Gratefulness to God (v4)
- Greatness of God (v5)
(1) Gratefulness to God (v4)
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Our gratitude stems from the truth that He hath made us whole (Psalm 100:3a), when we confess our sins and acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Saviour! Because He made us, we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100:3b). Our Chief Shepherd has issued the call and we have responded in grateful acknowledgement to His call and so we “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving” (v4a).
Do you come with some burdens in your hearts? As you worship God wholeheartedly, worries will be taken away and God’s wisdom and strength will abide in every seeking heart. How can this be possible? The psalmist gave to us three commands that will bring true peace and joy to your heart –
- Come for worship,
- Come in thanksgiving,
- Come bless His name!
This is the secret of strength in the believers’ life – a consistent worshipful life.
Come for worship. You have taken the first important step to come into His sanctuary for worship. My prayer is that you would continue to come, making an appointment with the Lord every Lord’s Day to be in His House. Prepare your heart, arrange your schedule, come to receive His blessings. Surely, your cup doth overflow.
Come in thanksgiving. As we come into God’s House, let us count our blessings. Recall what good we received of the Lord this past week, express our thanksgiving. The Lord is pleased when we come with a grateful heart. It brings great glory to His Name! Let this be a place of thanksgiving. A place where joy and gladness in the Lord are freely distributed by the Lord Himself. A sanctuary ruled by the peace of God, a house of prayer.
Come bless His name. When we give glory, and honour and thanks to Him (Rev. 4:9), we bless His name. Steve Cole said well, “Blessing God’s name means to praise Him for who He is, as revealed in His Word and through His Son. He has blessed us with His great gift of salvation. We return the blessing by praising Him.”1 By the singing of hymns, the uttering of prayers, the reading of Scripture, the faithful preaching of the word of God, we bless His name.
(2) Greatness of God (v5)
5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Our God is the LORD. We have tasted of His goodness (Psalm 34:8) and His mercy and have learned of His truth.
How is He a great God? We are sinful and deserve to be cut off but God takes pity on us. Jesus did not by-pass Samaria when He made His way from Judaea to Galilee (John 4:4). Jesus stopped at the well, the social center, to meet and save the Samaritan woman. She has a need for true love. Her soul’s yearning was not satisfied. That emptiness in her soul was due to the absence of God’s love. She has had five husbands. She sought this world’s brand of love and was disappointed by it. Jesus knew her problem and addressed it – “Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly” (John 4:18). Jesus did not condemn her by a sharp rebuke Jesus said gently, “Thou hast well said.” This woman was overtaken by the sin of adultery. In contrition of heart, she repented her sins.
God is good to save us. His mercy doth not fail in our lives but is able to carry us all the way to heaven. The psalmist testified by faith he has received God’s everlasting mercy. He came before his Lord to renew his trust in filial worship.
And having been blessed of God, we may go forth to be His witness as did the Samaritan woman – “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him, for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did…and He abode there two days. And many more believed because of His own word” (John 4:39, 40b, 41). Jesus is God. By believing in Jesus who died and rose from the dead the third day, we are saved.
This is the truth that endures to all generations. It is faithfully given to us in the Bible, God’s revealed Word. In it we have a true knowledge of Jesus Christ, our God. In the Bible, we find our compass for life. We are thankful to Him for giving to us the King James Bible. The underlying Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words are God’s very preserved Word to the jot and tittle. This is a truth that gives to us our confidence in declaring God’s Word to you. We believe unequivocally in the Verbal Plenary Inspiration and the Verbal Plenary Preservation of Scriptures. This is the constitution by which we have submitted. We are awaiting the Registry of Societies’ approval to formalize our work, the “Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church.”
We urge you to pray together with us for God’s blessing upon this new outreach. The Lord bless and keep you. Amen.
(Footnotes)
1 http://www.fcfonline.org/content/1/sermons/080209M.pdf
Yours lovingly
Pr Lek Aik Wee