Lord’s Day, Vol. 12. No. 31

(1) One Month into “The 7am Service”

Thank the Lord for His grace to assemble His people for this early morning service for the month of July. We met 22 times.

We started on Monday, 1 July with the message entitled “O Satisfy Us Early with Thy Mercy” (Psalm 90) by Pastor Lek. We mainly studied the Book of Genesis through 18 mornings with exhortations by Mr Lucas Lek. This is followed by 3 messages from the Gospel of John 1-3 by Pastor Lek ending on Tuesday, 30 July.

Below is the Order of Worship for 26 July Service.

Whereas we receive prayer requests for urgent prayers on Wednesday night prayer meetings, now we pray daily as an assembly of His people in this early morning hour. Two of our brethren had appendix operations whom we pleaded with the Lord for their well-being. Thank God for preserving them. One baby was discharged from NICU to SCU (Special Care Unit) by the grace of God.

Two hospital visitations made on 2 July 2024 and 29 July 2024 saw two confessions of faith by Mdm Tan Gim Tin and Mr Dennis Tan respectively. Pray for God’s grace for follow-up visitations to strengthen their faith.

We begin the month of August with the study of the Book of Exodus by Mr Lucas Lek for 17 mornings from 1 August – 24 August. Followed by 5 mornings from 26-31 August on Gospel of John 4-8 by Pastor Lek.

With 13 persons meeting together in person and 20 meeting on “live” streaming and another 20 during repeated website during the day, we pray that the Lord will sustain and bless our gathering before Him on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday in the month of August.

(2) Gospel Rally 2024

God willing, we shall gather for Gospel Rally 2024 on 1 September during our Lord’s Day Service. “What Shall I do to inherit Eternal Life?” (Mark 10:17-27). The choir will, God willing, present the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”. Do pray for the Lord’s blessing and invite loved ones and friends to this special meeting.

(3) Opening the Book of Proverbs

The book of Proverbs teaches us the life of godliness. It is a book for all seasons. What is the season in your life today? As God’s children, we seek to walk worthy of the vocation we are called, Christians first, before we are a student, a teacher, a retiree, a nurse, a doctor, an accountant … A father, a son, a daughter…

The theme throughout, the book is on obtaining “a right relationship with God as the basic principle in life.”

We need God’s ready wisdom at any time to choose the way of safety and blessing and to avoid the way of danger and cursing.

Admittedly, attempting to live a good Christian life can be frustrating when we are not guided and aided along. We need help. We need instruction. God gives us such instruction and we are just to seek it. Through prayer, God’s Word and aid from messages, can make living this Christian life easier and more fulfilling.

We all start with little experience and knowledge. Then we grow in our understanding and experience. And we need to be able to learn that we may grow.

It does so oftentimes by contrast and comparison showing to us the ungodly ways, pointing to us the godly ways and teaching us to choose wisely the way of blessing.

The word “proverb” means likeness or resemblance, like the parables in the New Testament.

Proverbs are written in what we call biblical poetry. The Hebrew writers use what is called parallelisms to convey their thoughts – similar thoughts or contrasting thoughts. These are very powerful ways to convey a message.

Oftentimes, a verse can stand alone by itself compactly conveying a teaching of practical living.

The writer of the Book of Proverbs is Solomon but the words are the wisdom of God. It delineates the philosophy of practical life, giving us the best rules for the conduct of life, so that we may by imbibing the wisdom, obtain the favour of God, and a clear conscience to live life, and living it rightly in the sight of God and man.

Solomon has often been called “the Great Preacher who failed to practice”. There is the fool in us that the book of Proverbs exposes and we may say “Poor Solomon” for he set for us an example of what not to follow and yet if you read his last writing in his old age – the Book of Ecclesiastes, how he has repented of his foolishness and sought a right relationship with His Creator God for one day we will have to see Him as Judge.

To speed us along, Proverbs seeks for us to have a right attitude towards God. This the writer termed “the fear of God”.

The fear of God speaks of one whose heart has a reverential awe toward God that results holy desire to obey, follow Him and depart from evil. The fear of God means godly piety.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. 

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

Denis Gibson said well, “… Knowledge is facts, basic information. Wisdom is the application of knowledge, or facts in action … The most intelligent thing we can do is to fear God. Fear suggests something negative but this fear is always positive. We do things that displease God, and fear is the proper attitude then. Always seek to be on “good terms” with God.”

We had a series of message on the Lord’s Day and Daily Devotion by Denis Gibson in 2018 on the Book of Proverbs. It is available in our website.

It suggests a teachable heart to imbibe the ways of God as a way of life. It suggests also a humility of heart, willingness to let God’s Word and the prompting of the Holy Spirit hold sway to guide our way. It suggests a man of faith, willing to take God at His Word, trust and obey.

The God-fearer is contrasted with the depraved and degenerate men – Romans 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

It is not a spirit of fear or cowardice as in the fear of men – Proverbs 29:25 The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

The God-fearer is not worldly wise. He will not use his wisdom or the world’s wisdom – 1 Corinthians 3:18-19 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

Deuteronomy 13:4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

There is a strength of heart to trust God and obey only His voice!

How can one do so? It is by prayer – 1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your care (worries and fears) upon Him …”

The fear of God causes us to live holy lives. We understand that God judge men after their sins. The fear of God thus teaches us to live circumspectly.

2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Hebrews 12:28-29 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

The motivation to fear Him is the holiness of God – Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

The fear of God is necessary for good government – 2 Samuel 23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.

The fear of God is necessary for the administration of justice – 2 Chronicles 19:6-9 And said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment.

Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts. Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites, and of the priests, and of the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the LORD, and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem. And he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye do in the fear of the LORD, faithfully, and with a perfect heart.

Solomon concluded the whole duty of men when he cited first to fear God – Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

The book of Proverbs provides for us the parental wisdom from our Father in heaven that we need to tread the journey of life.

Proverbs 1:8-9 (KJV) ⁸ My son, hear (listen with the heart to obey) the instruction of thy father, and forsake not (emotional appeal, urgency) the law of thy mother: ⁹ For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

How to avoid the landmines, the traps, the deception that lures us to shipwreck our lives? Our Lord wants for us only the best. Just as earthly parents want the best for their children.

Our God has given us pertinent instructions for life’s journey not to show His power or might but simply to help us live the best life we possibly can. In turn, we should live in such a way that He is honoured.

As one Christian writer puts it, “Our actions should reflect the quality of our upbringing. We should live as a proof of how much we love God”.

For us as God’s children, we need to pray that God will help us in our attempts to live as He has instructed us. Help us to honour and glorify Him and do nothing to bring shame to His holy Name.

To be continued…

Yours lovingly,

Pastor Lek Aik Wee