Dear BPCWA worshipper, The past year or so has been active and exciting in the political arena in Australia. Back in March 2021, there was the WA State election. Yesterday was the Federal Election. Does this have anything to do with us Christians? While we want to understand more of this today, let me at the outset of this clarify unequivocally that I am not teaching that Christians should be engaged in political or social activism. Much to the contrary. God has not called the church to be distracted by involvement in politics and seek to change society through political means. The church always has a spiritual aim and purpose. Nor do we expect a “Christian government” and it is
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, More than a week ago, we had one of our several church busy bees in the year. It was a good time when newer worshippers joined together with other busy bee “veterans” to do many tasks around the church. For larger churches with bigger grounds, much of the maintenance may be typically handled by employed caretakers who are hired for such jobs, and who will engage and manage cleaning companies. For other churches without their own grounds, they pay a rental to the landlord who takes care of the needed maintenance of the premises. God has blessed us with our own church building where we can worship. With our current and projected facility size after the extension,
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, We continue this week with the concluding summary of the sermon commemorating our 36th church anniversary. Last week, we saw how God has indisputably purposed for the Church to be part of His eternal plan in Christ Jesus, who loved her and gave Himself for her. This being the case, then Christians should have high regard for the church and make it part of their duty to ensure that it continues as God’s plans. Sadly, many Christians today don’t care much about the church. Some others who do express concern about the church instead are more concerned about the church meeting their personal preferences or desires. But the church is God’s, and we must follow God’s purpose
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, We thank God that we were able to celebrate BPCWA’s 36th Anniversary which passed earlier in February this year. Commemorating it together with our worship service allowed us the blessed opportunity to really consider the reason for BPCWA’s existence. It is important that we not forget why BPCWA exists. Every year’s anniversary should not just be a time of thankfulness for God’s preservation, without being reminded of the purpose of a church. It should also be a time of self-reflection and rededication for us as a church to fulfill God’s purpose for keeping it. This being so, I thought it was important that I write a pastoral to capture the sermon preached last week, entitled “A Solemn
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, BPCWA marked her 36th Anniversary a few months ago in Feb 2022. We were unable to have our usual Anniversary Dinner last Sunday due to the 2 sqm regulations in place at hospitality venues. But we are grateful that we can continue to offer our thanksgiving to God during our worship service today. As a means of commemorating our church anniversary without an Anniversary Dinner, we will be distributing a thumb drive of our congregational singing. This set of hymns is the playback of BPCWA worshippers worshipping in BPCWA! The purpose of this memorabilia. The reason for giving you these memorabilia of a compilation of our congregational singing are threefold. 1) To have a hymn compilation sung
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, We thank God again for another year wherein we can remember the death and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ over Good Friday and Easter. On Good Friday, we remembered the agony that God, our Creator, suffered for the payment of man’s sins. As Christ hung on the cross in the middle of the crowd of crude and mocking soldiers, “said Jesus, Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). God then continues by recording for us that these soldiers “parted his raiment, and cast lots”, with no regard to the gracious words uttered. The reason we can celebrate the resurrection of Christ is that we have received His forgiveness for our sins. What does God’s
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, Traditionally known as Christian holidays, this Friday will be Good Friday and next Sunday is Easter. Here in Australia, we are particularly blessed with a long stretch of holidays from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. This being the case, what is your perspective of these holidays? Preparing to witness. Let us be holding forth the Word of Life (Phil 2:16) as lights! We have been displaying the invitation flyers for our Good Friday and Easter services at the church foyer before our service for several weeks. Carefully designed to reflect the Christian message, printed in colour, and complete with the maps behind, these flyers are intended to be used to invite friends and strangers alike to come
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, As announced in our bulletin some weeks ago, Melville Council has approved the drawings submitted for our church extension update. Some may have been wondering what’s next after this important step. Others may be thinking that perhaps they’d soon see construction work beginning on-site. This pastoral will help to give our worshippers an update on what has been going on behind the scenes of the church extension project. The design phase. In our last communication update, we updated the congregation on the proposed drawings which involved a single-storey worship sanctuary extension. Much time was spent on ensuring that our current limitations are addressed. Here are just a few highlights to recap the key aspects which we have
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, Today, we are not just hearing of “of wars and rumours of wars” (Matt 24:6) – we are witnessing them. The day is far spent, we must progress His kingdom. Soldiers of Christ, arise and put your armour on! I hope that by now, we realise that we are called to be soldiers of Christ. As I mentioned last week, this is not about engaging in a physical warfare or being active in the political arena. Rather, it is about progressing His kingdom’s work individually and through His church. It is about a soldier vowing to defend and protect his nation’s cause. Today, I want us to understand what being a soldier of Christ requires of every
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, At the end of February, while most Ukrainians were asleep, Russia launched a series of missiles into their homeland. This was the start of the war that has since caught the attention of the world as Ukraine struggles against the onslaught of the Russians. As I watched it over the news, it was the first time I’d heard the sound of war sirens. I have only heard of such war sirens in history museums’ videos of past wars long ago, not in a present-day situation. For now, while God spares us the ravages of war in Australia, we who live during these times can learn many spiritual lessons from the war that we are witnessing from across
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