Dear BPCWA worshipper, Man has the responsibility to plan and use his time well. However, despite the best of all planning, things can change. This was what I experienced recently in my trip to Singapore. I believe others have also encountered similar experiences. And such occurrences will not be a once-off in the circumstances of life. As the saying goes,“Man proposes, God disposes”. But when God changes our plans, He is merely working out His plan. Hence, God reminds us in James 4:15, “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” My purpose in sharing this experience is so that when something unplanned (and perhaps undesirable in our human thinking)
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, The word “grace” is very much on our lips as Christians. We often rightly give credit to God’s grace for the ability to do anything. We sing many hymns about God’s grace. We may know theologically about grace, but do we really think much about it, and are our hearts moved by it? What is grace? Grace means God’s favour, kindness, and goodwill. Charis, the Greek word for “grace”, contains the idea of a kindness that God bestows upon one what he has not deserved. The key point about grace is that it is an undeserved kindness of God. Whether we refer to enabling grace or salvation grace, they are underserved graciousness from God. Salvation is undeserved
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, How has your walk been since the retreat and camp? The church theme is not just for us to be excited after the retreat and camp, and then for us to revert to our old ways thereafter. It is a lifelong theme for a lifelong walk! Final summary. Over the past few weeks, we have been walking through the sermons preached based on our church theme “Walk as Christ Walked”, taken from 1John 2:6 “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” We often say we want to love God more. If so, then start walking as Christ walked and you will demonstrate your love for God. In
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, We will conclude the recap of our camp thematic messages with the “S” and “T” of walking IN CHRIST. Sanctification. God tells us that as His sons (1Jn 3:1), we know that we will eventually be perfect because “we shall be like him” (1Jn 3:2). This knowledge ought to do something since “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1Jn 3:3). Purification is about sanctification. In sanctification is how Christians must walk, even as Christ walked. Christ is the perfect model of sanctification and how every Christian ought to walk in this world (Jn 17:19). Sanctification means being dedicated and set apart to God for sacred duty. So, sanctification must
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, This week, we want to consider walking as Christ walked in our relationships and in increasing fruitfulness. This is the “R” and “I” of IN CHRIST. Relationships. In 1 John 1:5-7, we are reminded that since God is light, “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him” (1 Jhn 2:10). The Apostle John chided the believers because loving the brethren had departed so far from what God expects, so much so that the old and existing commandment sounded new to them. Hence, he said, “Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, Last week, we saw how the driver for us to walk as Christ must be love for God. When we do so, the result will be that our love for God will grow as we walk like Him. Walking as Christ walked is not an option for a Christian. We will cover the next 2 sermons in today’s pastoral, where we will learn 2 prerequisites for walking as Christ walked. Consecration. Consecration is the first prerequisite to walking as Christ walked. 1Jo 2:2 tells us Christ “is the propitiation for our sins”. Christ’s propitiation is because the wrath of God was coming toward us. Christ stood in between us and God and deflected God’s wrath. To be
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, The thematic messages at the camp were based on our church’s theme, “Walk as Christ Walked” (1Jn 2:6). In the first Epistle of John, the Apostle spends time to talk about fellowship with God and knowing Him in truth because we are in Christ (1Jo 1:5, 2:5,6,8 etc.). The Christian life is one of abiding in Christ (1Jo 2:6,27,28 etc.). Hence, the thematic messages were preached over 8 messages, using the acronym “In Christ” for each message. In this pastoral, we will cover the first 2, namely “The Impetus” and “The Need”. In future pastorals, we will cover the other 6 – “Consecration”, “Humility”, “In Relationships”, “In Increasing”, “In Sanctification”, and “In Temptations”. The Impetus. God saved us to
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, In today’s pastoral, we will finish with the remaining morning devotion sermons on the topic “Unity in the Church”. I hope everyone revises the important lessons carefully. Cost of Unity. There is a price to unity because painful choices often must be made for unity. We see that physically, where at times certain parts of the body may need to bear sacrifices for the health of the rest of the body to be preserved. Unity of the body must be based upon the truth. We cannot just seek unity no matter what it takes, tolerating sin or disagreement of doctrines. The right understanding of doctrines unites, but sin is the wrong or wilful misinterpretation of the Word.
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, It is with much thanksgiving in our hearts that we were once again able to meet in person for our Family Camp. Over the next few weeks, I will summarise the sermons preached at the camp as an important recapturing of key lessons we should not forget, as well as for the benefit of all worshippers. BPCWA is, by God’s mercies, enjoying doctrinal unity and we must continue to stress on such unity. However, we must not underestimate Satan’s wiles to weaken our testimony by sowing seeds of internal disunity and strife. Hence, I invited Rev Ko Lingkang to record the morning devotion messages on the theme “Unity in the Church”, with 4 messages on “The Basis
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, We continue looking at God’s command, “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you” (Ho 10:12). Last week, we saw the importance of having prepared hearts as we come before God and listen to His Word. When we continue the same way regardless of whatever we hear, the easy excuse can be that “I’ve heard that before, it’s nothing new to me”. While the messenger of God’s Word must be faithful to what He proclaims, the hearer of His Word also has a responsibility to prepare their hearts to be ready for His Word. Let us
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