Family Day 2017

Thank God for gathering 43 members and friends for Family Day 2017 at the Rasa Sentosa Resort on 22 December.

The theme of our retreat was “Strengthening Our Devotional Life”. There were two messages – The Believer’s Quiet Time (Psalm 63:1-8) and Tools for the Trade (Joshua 1:8).

This is an excerpt of “The Believer’s Quiet Time”:

“The believer’s quiet time is private devotion time, set aside for the purpose of cultivating a rich spiritual life. It is an appointment with God. The believer’s quiet time seeks to move him from a state of stress to a state of rest. The cultivation of a calm spirit in the peace and joy of God is the frame of a man in touch with God. The believer’s quiet time is the high point of private worship. The elements of private devotion are prayer, the reading and meditation of God’s Word. What is God’s message for me this day? The quiet time must not deteriorate to a regiment. It must not take away the excitement and delight of the soul in the pursuit of God. Yet there is a need to have self-discipline to cultivate a habit of life-long devotion to God.

Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne

John 10:10b I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Emily Elliot was born at Brighton, England, on July 22, 1836. Throughout her life she was associated with the evangelical faction of the Anglican Church. She gave of herself tirelessly in working with the rescue missions and Sunday Schools in her area. Emily was a niece of Charlotte Elliott, author of the hymn “Just As I Am”. For six years she edited a magazine called the Church Missionary Juvenile Instructor. Forty-eight of her hymns were published in a book entitled Under the Pillow, a book of verse for the special use of people who are ill in hospitals, infirmaries or at home.

Paul and Silas in Prison

What would you do if you were unjustly thrown into prison? Some would grumble, growl, grouch, grouse, and gripe. Others would fume and fuss, moan and groan.

Paul and Silas were not only cast into prison but were stripped and beaten and severely flogged. They yearned to preach the Gospel. Instead, they were in solitary confinement – beaten and bloody, their feet fastened in tortuous stocks. What could they do?

The account reads: “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” (Acts 16:25)Why were death-row inmates singing praises instead of the blues? Because God gave them a song that turned them into a duo with a duet in their dungeon. God was the “choir director” that night who provided the sheet music for his two- midnight minstrels. Paul and Silas had learned with afflicted Job that “God giveth songs in the night.”

There’s Within My Heart a Melody

-From a Calamitous Loss of Wife and Children

Luther Bridges, a successful young evangelist, accepted an invitation to hold two weeks of revival meetings near his wife’s home in Horrodsburg, Kentucky, in 1910. His wife, whom he had met and married at Asbury College, stayed with their three boys at his in-laws while he conducted the meetings, at which many accepted Christ.

Near the end of the campaign, he received a late-night phone call. The person at the other end conveyed the tragic news that his wife’s parents; home had burned to the ground with his wife and three sons all lost in the fire. At the age of twenty-six, he was bereft of his precious family.

(1) What Is Honest Money?

Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

The Bible tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Money itself is not evil. But the love of money is a grievous sin.

The Apostle Paul warns that while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:10). Beware of the lure of a materialistic life-style that enslaves men and women in every generation.

Wine Is a Mocker

Proverbs 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

“Total Abstinence” is a distinctive of the Bible-Presbyterian Church at its formation in 1937, predominantly through the efforts of such conservative Presbyterian clergymen as Carl McIntire, J. Oliver Buswell and Allen A. MacRae. The First General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church was held in 1938 in Collingswood, NJ.

Two main issues made the existence of these factions within the Orthodox Presbyterian Church evident. The first had to do with a classic Reformed piety over against a piety of fundamentalism. It came down to a conflict of the use of alcoholic beverages. The “Orthodox” side condemned drunkenness, but nevertheless, did not agree that Scripture taught total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. The “Bible” side asserted that Christians ought to abstain totally from alcohol.

Thank God for 70 campers gathered for our 4th Annual Family Bible Camp at the Pan Pacific Singapore.

The theme of our camp is “The Making of a Spiritual Man”. There were eight messages to speed us along our spiritual journey till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13)

Fleeting Riches

Proverb 23:4-5 Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

There is something deceitful about the material wealth of this world. In all our endeavours, this proverb warns us against labouring to be rich.

Verse 5 says “riches certainly make themselves wings” (this is a term of emphatic “certainty”). Riches that come to us can also be taken away from us.

The command in these two verses is the word “cease”. Cease from our own deception that labouring for riches is what life is all about.

As we look at the world today, we see how material wealth and riches are highly esteemed. The rich are portrayed as people having a good life and respected by the world. And because of this, many desire to become rich.

Easter Sunrise Service

The most significant day in human history is the day when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, rose from the dead. Harold W. Hoehner in his book “Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ”, gave the date to be 5 April A.D. 33. On that glorious morning, death is conquered, hell is vanquished, and heaven won!

All who confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in their heart that God has raised Him from the dead shall be saved. Saved from the judgment of hell fire and be given eternal life in heaven. This is the gospel or good news of peace and glad tidings that we proclaim with great rejoicing to a world without hope.

The late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones articulated it well, “There can be no more urgent question at this present time than just this: What is Christianity? I say that because this gospel is the only hope in the world today. Everything else has been tried and found wanting. Everything else has failed. You will not find hope with the philosophers or with the statesmen, and you will not find it in the so-called religion of the world. Here is hope, and here alone.”

ORDER OF WORSHIP

16 April 2017

Speaker: Rev Lek Aik Wee

Worship Leader: Rev Lek Aik Wee

The LORD is in His Holy Temple*

CALL TO WORSHIP:

Psalm 145:1-5 David’s Psalm of praise. I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.