Lord’s Day, Vol. 11 No. 5
9th Anniversary Thanksgiving
Psalm 84:11 (KJV) For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
It is with utmost joy and thanksgiving that the church comes together to rejoice on this 9th Anniversary when we remember the Lord’s goodness in allowing the church to be formalized on 28 January 2014 when Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church was registered under the Societies Act. The gazette notification effecting the registration was published in the Government Gazette on 6 February 2014.
Our inaugural weekly on 17 November 2013 when we began worship was entitled “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4a)”, we recall:
“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 8 pm since 15 August 2013 on Thursday nights and most recently from 6 November 2013 to pray mid-week on Wednesday.”
Published in the church’s 2 February 2014 newsletter, “It was an answer to prayer. 24 September 2013 was the date we submitted our application. We waited upon the Lord in prayer for 127 days. The Lord is good. We give Him all praise and glory.”
The church with the help of our late Pastoral Advisor, Rev Dr Tow Siang Hwa is founded upon the rich heritage of the Bible-Presbyterian Church, understanding that the strength of the Bible-Presbyterian church is its unequivocal adherence to the Bible, hence, the word “Bible” is placed before the word “Presbyterian” for there was a point in time when the Presbyterian Church in America came out and was separated from the compromise of modernism, liberalism and neo-evangelicalism when Carl McIntire started the Bible-Presbyterian Church in America in 1937.
We believe in the divine, Verbal Plenary Inspiration (Autographs) and Verbal Plenary Preservation (Apographs) of the Scriptures in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy and infallibility, and as the perfect Word of God, the supreme and final authority in faith and practice (2 Tim 3:16, 2 Pet 1:20-21, Ps 12:6-7, Matt 5:18, 24:35).
We believe the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament underlying the Authorized (King James) Version to be the very Word of God, infallible and inerrant.
We uphold the Authorised (King James) Version to be the Word of God – the best, most faithful, most accurate, most beautiful translation of the Bible in the English language and do employ it alone as our primary scriptural text in the public reading, preaching and teaching of the English Bible.
Psalm 84:11 says, “The LORD is our sun and shield…” CH Spurgeon in the Treasury of David commented well, “Pilgrims need both as the weather may be, for the cold would smite them were it not for the sun, and foes are apt to waylay the sacred caravan, and would haply destroy it if it were without a shield. Heavenly pilgrims are not left uncomforted or unprotected. The pilgrim nation found both sun and shield in that fiery cloudy pillar which was the symbol of Jehovah’s presence, and the Christian still finds both light and shelter in the Lord his God. A sun for happy days and a shield for dangerous ones. A sun above, a shield around. A light to show the way and a shield to ward off its perils. Blessed are they who journey with such a convoy; the sunny and shady side of life are alike happy to them.”
This was our experience in the past nine years. The LORD was with us as the church seeks to fulfil her chief mission “to save souls” and “to edify Christians through the teaching of God’s Word”, “the promotion of godly and biblical worship”, in the “defence of the faith which was once delivered unto the saints”.
Through the arduous journey especially in the last three years of the pandemic, the LORD was our sun and our shield. How is the LORD our shield? He stands in front of us to defend us from the onslaught of the evil one. He, Himself, was our shield. The pandemic was to close the church! We remained open for worship from 28 June 2020 as the nation exited from the circuit breaker. The Lord enabled us to remain physically open throughout this period. This is the promise that our LORD gives us when He said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt 28:20b). He is true to His Word. This is our experience. He protected us!
Our Worship Service was arranged as a Bible Study to facilitate worship for all members and friends regardless of vaccination status for 13 weeks from 6 February 2022 till 24 April 2022.
Dear brethren, our LORD gave Himself for us. He says, “Lo, I am with you all the way.” Our LORD is wholly dedicated to our care as the church fulfils the Great Commission. He will defend us from the power of the enemy and praise God, He has!
Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Hebrews 2:14-15 (KJV) Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Our LORD defeated death by dying for us and rising for us! He delivered us from our fallenness, and free us from the bondage of sin to give us a new heart and make us new men in Christ. The gospel is indeed the power of God to save!
The LORD is our sun and shield, the LORD gives us grace and glory. We begin our spiritual life by the grace of God and continue by the grace of God till we see Him in glory. This is well articulated by the Apostle Paul:
Ephesians 2:5-7 (KJV) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
We cannot fully fathom and understand the eternal glory to come but we can rest in the promise of His Word. For now, He says to us, “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Indeed, the LORD blesses us on our way as we seek to live holily and righteously, to obey His mandate to fulfil the Great Commission: Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV) And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
CH Spurgeon further commented, “Grace makes us walk uprightly and this secures every covenant blessing to us. What a wide promise! Some apparent good may be withheld, but no real good, no, not one. “All things are yours, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.””
The LORD is true to His Word! We rest assured in His Word and His promise to be with us as we begin this new year. Amen.
Yours lovingly,
Pastor Lek Aik Wee