Thank God for gathering us for worship on both Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Our youth choir sang for the first time on Good Friday to the praise and glory of His blessed Name. The hymn was “Jesus Paid It All” with Mrs. Siow conducting and Miss Lois Lek on the keyboard. It was a memorable Good Friday service with Mrs. Ivy Ng–Jamieson joining us for worship after a two-week treatment at the National University Hospital. Thank God for sustaining and keeping her. Praise God also for new visitors including my aunt who came to church for the first time. May the gospel seed sown, take root and bear fruit. All praise and glory to our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day after His death on the cross to live forever more. This is our blessed hope. Because Jesus rose from the dead He will also raise all who have died in Christ at His coming. This is the comfort for the bereaved. The separation from our loved ones who have gone before us in the Lord is but temporal. We shall see them again.

Remembering Good Friday
The church remembers the sufferings, crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. What is the significance? Isaiah 53:6 tell us, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” On the cross, Jesus paid the debt for our sins. As the old saying teaches, “He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.”

Thank God for 38 including 5 children below the age of 12, who have signed up for our first church camp. We have sufficient number of campers to cover the minimum 15 rooms required by the hotel. Traders Hotel in Puteri Habour, Johor Bahru is located just a 15 minutes drive from the Tuas checkpoint. We pray for a time of praise, rejoicing and spiritual feeding on the Word of God. The theme of our camp is, Jesus is the Joy of Living.

If you are minded to attend the camp but have yet to sign up, you are welcome to do so. Closing date for the camp registration is 13 April 2014.

“Envy” according the Webster’s dictionary is a feeling of discontent at the sight of superior excellence, reputation or happiness enjoyed by another. It describes one who complains discontentedly or murmurs at another’s prosperity. It is to fret or grieve at the real or supposed superiority of another, and hence to hate the person on that account. The Bible tells us that the character of Christian love dispels the entanglement of “envy” and exhibits a calm contentment of the heart at the supposed inequalities of life.

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.

This word “charity” describes the outworking of God’s love in the life of a believer. This love is both unconditional and sacrificial as exemplified by Jesus’ life. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2:5-6 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all”. This word “charity” has a definite article attached to it in the Greek text. The definite article attached to this love describes the specific characteristic or identity of such a love. Greek grammar tells us that this definite article serves to point out, to draw attention to, to identify, to make definite, and to define the character of this “agape” type of love.

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene…The scene opens before us at the end of the Sabbath. The Jewish Sabbath is our Saturday. The Jewish day starts at 6am and ends at 6am the next day. The end of the Sabbath is some time at dawn before day breaks on our Sunday. Friday was the first day of Jesus’ death. Saturday was the second day. This is the dawning of the third day, the day of resurrection. Mary Magdalene – who is she? A simple woman folk from Galilee! Why is she special?