Category: Weekly Newsletter

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Family Day 2018

Thank God for a blessed Family Day on 25 December at the Amara Sanctuary Resort Hotel in Sentosa. The Lord gave us good weather and safety on that day for all participants. All praise and glory to God.

The theme of our messages “… And There Jesus Prayed” was taken from Mark 1:35 “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.”

It is a spiritual exercise each time God’s people wrestle against often great odds to be able to gather together to study His Word and pray. This is where we can make progress in our spiritual life when we take time to meditate upon the Scriptures and pray.

Our Lord took time to be alone so that He can commune with the Father in heaven. Jesus sets for us the example. Therein, we find strength for life.

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Sharing the Joy of the Saviour’s Birth

In the frenzy of parties and shopping in this month of December, let us not forget this is the time when we remember our Saviour’s birth. Christmas is the highest point of human history because it marks the fulfilment of God’s plan to save mankind from the curse of sin that is not only physical death but also eternal judgment in the lake of fire.

At Christmas, we remember the birth of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. He, alone, can save us from our sins. This is the good news that the angels announced to the humble shepherds tending their sheep in the field in Bethlehem that night. This was the joy that was announced to the world.

“Fear not, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11).

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Give Me Thine Heart

Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

“Give, my son, your heart to me” is the loving entreaty of our heavenly Father to His children. The emphasis is on the active verb placed at the beginning of the sentence in the literal translation. Offer, present, surrender your heart to me.

The Apostle Paul provided a similar entreaty with an exhortation to prayer when he said in Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Indeed, not by our own power but by the mercies of God, a prayer that God will bestow His unmerited favour when we deserve punishment for our waywardness.

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The Lord’s Return Is Near

The church of Jesus Christ is exhorted to prepare for the Lord’s imminent return.

Let us look at James’ exhortation to the church in James 5:7-8 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

James addressed the early church who were persecuted for their faith, suffering the loss of their possessions, even their livelihood and home. What were they to do when they have been following the Lord and yet incarcerated? Life was difficult! He exhorted them to be patient, to learn patience. To be patient when their rights have been encroached. James was painting the rich oppressors of this world (James 5:1-6), whose riches come through evil ways and will ultimately be disappointed with life. These wealthy oppressors of this world, those who use their wealth to make more personal wealth for personal gain at the expense of others will not face a good end. These rich, elite men of the world will one day cry in misery because their fortunes are turned. When Christ returns, they will be judged. “Weep and howl” (James 5:1) described the great grief, pain and sorrow that they will experience. These who have hoarded their wealth and lost them eventually to decay. Their wealth rotted away.

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(1) Royal Priesthood

Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

As you pray for God’s mercies to be granted, take with you these thoughts:

The infinite willingness of God to bless. His very nature is a pledge of it. He delights in mercy. He wants to be gracious. His promises and the experience of His saints assures us of it.

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O Jesus I Have Promised

O Jesus, I have promised

To serve Thee to the end;
Be Thou forever near me,

my Master and my Friend;

I shall not fear the battle

If Thou art by my side,
Nor wander from the pathway

If Thou wilt be my Guide.

O let me feel Thee near me

The world is ever near;

I see the sights that dazzle,

The tempting sounds I hear;

My foes are ever near me,

Around me and within;

But, Jesus, draw Thou nearer,

And shield my soul from sin.

O Jesus, Thou hast promised

To all who follow Thee,
That where Thou art in glory,

There shall Thy servant be;
And Jesus, I have promised

To serve Thee to the end;
Oh, give me grace to follow,

My Master and my Friend.

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Enter and Find Pasture

John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (Jn. 10:9 KJV)

Jesus said, “I am the door”, by which a man, entering in, is saved. Not only will Jesus save his soul, but he finds pasture – nourishment for his soul. The Apostle Paul who was gloriously saved when He met Jesus by a bright light from heaven on the Damascus road testified that more than temporal physical blessings (Matt. 6:33), the man who is reconciled with God through Jesus Christ, experienced the desire to live a life that is right in the sight of God and finding peace and joy in the heart.

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

He testified how the repentant sinner can be saved in Romans 10:9-10.

9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

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He Loved them Unto the End

John 13:1Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

It was a most trying time in our Lord Jesus’ earthly ministry where He would suffer shameful betrayal and desertion from His disciples. The suffering steps to the cross would soon begin. Yet, whether to His disciples or to the lost, He remained true to the mission that His Father had sent Him – He loved them unto the end.

JC Ryle said well, “Knowing perfectly well that they were about to forsake Him shamefully in a very few hours, in full view of their approaching display of weakness and infirmity, our blessed Master did not cease to have loving thoughts of His disciples. He was not weary of them: He loved them to the last.”

To think of such let-down would have driven a mortal man to great despair yet our Lord patiently and lovingly bore all. The Apostle Peter who, himself, deserted our Lord Jesus, having later repented, recounted the greatness of that love wrote:

20For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. (1 Pet. 2:20-25 KJV)

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Reformation in Switzerland

From Germany, the Protestant Reformation progressed to Switzerland, where in the northern part the people were mostly German in language and customs, in distinction from those parts which were geographically and in certain other respects linked with France.

Ulrich Zwingli led the Reformation movement in the northern part of Switzerland. He was born in the village of Wildhaus in 1484. Like Luther, he was of lowly birth, but he was brought up in more favourable circumstances than Luther and was educated in a school at Basel and at the University of Vienna. He was an altogether different type of man from Luther, but the teaching of the Spirit of God led both of them in the same direction. Zwingli became more and more convinced of the sad condition of the Church, and as he was a very earnest and diligent student of the Bible, he also became convinced that between many of the teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and those of the Scriptures there was a world of difference. At the same time, he read the writings of the early Fathers and the books of Wycliffe and Huss. When a colleague of Tetzel, Bernardin Samson, sold indulgences in Switzerland, Zwingli raised a protect, but he was not as bold as Luther, nor was Samson as boisterous as Tetzel, so there was not such a violent clash in Switzerland as there was in Germany.

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