Lord’s Day, Vol. 2 No. 11
(1) Blessed Worship
We are thankful to God for bringing Rev. Dr. Tow Siang Hwa, our pastoral advisor, to minister God’s Word to us and to conduct the Lord’s Supper last Lord’s Day. He spoke from Psalm 139 on how we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God, debunking the theory of evolution. We are thankful to God for His truth faithfully expounded from the King James Bible. It was indeed a happy occasion when we took a group photograph to remember this day.
(2) Invitation Cards and Tract
As an answer to prayer, we have received from our printer 10,000 copies each of two invitation cards and 10,000 copies of a tract entitled “Will I Get to Heaven?”. With great excitement, a two-man gospel team comprising brother Tong Seng and myself began distributing about 200 copies A5 size invitation cards together with the tract “Will I Get to Heaven?” to residents living in estates near our church. The day is 13 March 2014. Brother Tong Seng prayed for the Lord’s guidance and we began.
We covered Elizabeth Drive, Jalan Batu Nilam, Jalan Intan, Jalan Demawan, Chu Yen Street, Chu Lin Road and Jalan Remaja. Our bag of invitation cards and tracts were all distributed. We began at 11am and completed the task at 12.30pm adjourning for lunch at a coffee shop in Jalan Remaja. We moved from house to house, inserting into letterboxes of these landed properties. I met one gentleman who commented that it was a most expensive endeavour to drive a car to distribute invitation cards and tracts. Estate agents would usually employ someone to distribute on foot. He has never seen anyone driving a car to distribute flyers. I invited him to come and visit us at our new church. I said, “We are a Bible-Presbyterian church.” He said, “I’ll help spread the word around.” I replied, “Thank you.” It was hot and sunny with little wind but we cherished the time. Before the registration approval of the church, we could not begin evangelism work with printed tracts. And so there was much pent-up energy that was discharged on this special day.
We invite you to form your two or fourperson teams for this meaningful work. I can show you the map of the residential estates around our church. You may pick the estate or block of your choice, collect the invitation cards and tracts to distribute them at your convenient time. If you prefer, you may also join Tong Seng and I every Thursday morning. God willing, we shall move towards the Dairy Farm and Bukit Panjang estates over the next few weeks. All praise and thanks to Him!
(3) Charity is kind (1 Corinthians 13:4a)
The Christian’s love is characterized by kindness. The root word in Greek for “kindness” means “to furnish what is needed, useful and profitable”. This word is translated as “good” as opposed to bad in 1 Corinthians 15:33 “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” And in Luke 6:35 this word is also translated “kind”, “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.” The Apostle Paul uses the word “kind” in describing our relationship with one another, the willingness to forgive offences committed against us by others. Ephesians 4:32 read “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” It describes God’s kindness even towards the ungrateful. What is the origin of such kindness? Titus 3:4 tells us it is exemplified by God’s love toward man in the person of His Son, Jesus. Titus 3:4 says “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared.” Jesus Christ’s life and death exemplify the personality of God’s character called kindness. Remember in Luke 23:34 Jesus, who was suffering on the cross, requested God the Father to forgive His tormentors.
Jesus taught His disciples “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This teaching of benevolence is the outworking of this character of kindness. How is it that when we give, we ‘lose’ something that we used to have and yet we are more blessed? This truth has to be understood by faith. When we believe this truth and do as instructed, we would experience God’s greater blessing. This is a perspective that is beyond the carnal mind. It can be understood only in the context of God’s supernatural love, as it were injected into our blood stream, enabling us to give sacrificially and unconditionally. We are in our natural self, self-seeking and selfsatisfying. However, we could experience the change by the power of the Holy Spirit when the believer put to death the old man and put on the new man.
When the chief tax-collector Zacchaeus met Jesus and repented of his sins, he said to
his Lord in Luke 19:8 “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” He showed kindness to the poor and he was willing to make restitution to anyone he has wronged. This is the disposition of a God fearer, one who is fully aware of his utter unworthiness and sinfulness and how he has been forgiven much and therefore he is able to forgive much also.
Dear readers, have you truly experienced God’s forgiveness for your sins? This is the most important. If we have not experienced God’s love and His forgiveness for our sins, we cannot truly appreciate the truth of showing kindness and forgiveness to someone else. If you have been struggling with some sins in your life and you realized that God is confronting you to forsake your sins, do not hesitate but turn to Jesus today and turn away from your sins. Only Jesus has the power to forgive your sins because He is God. Simply cry out to Jesus – “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!” Experience the forgiveness of your sins by the blood of Jesus shed for you at the cross for the cleansing of your sins. This is the first step to learning God’s kindness to sinners such as us. Pray that the Lord will use us as His unworthy vessel to show kindness to someone today and everyday.
Yours lovingly
Pr Lek Aik Wee