“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deut 10:12).

Dear BPCWAians, What is the point of a church theme? The key idea is to help the church and its worshippers have a specific area of emphasis for both the church and in our personal walk with God. While we do not typically preach on our church theme throughout the entire year, but mainly at family camp, it is still meant to provide a focus and rallying point as a church and also serves as a reminder for individuals to focus on the theme personally. So why was this theme selected for 2018? It is important for us to know the reasons so that we do not lose sight of it during the year.

Have a Biblical view of your life on earth (Fear and walk with yourGod). Christians often have a misguided view of their life on earth. Firstly, many think that they will be happy if they have what their heart desires of what the world offers, and if they can be living a life of luxury and pleasures without care. These may temporarily bring happiness but it will not give lasting joy. Emptiness often ensues and the heart will seek greater thrills and pleasures. For the believer, only Christ brings true satisfaction and lasting joy. Secondly, as I have been preaching recently, many think that a consecrated life is optional for the believer. But it is not. I pray that from 2018 onwards, you will understand that God left you on earth after saving you for a reason. You are to live a Christlike life to point unbelievers to Him, to be an encouragement to believers, and to be engaged in building His church. Such a life is what God intended for you, to occupy you after salvation. This is the Biblical view of life on earth. So what has been occupying your life up till now? There is a place for recreation, holidays, and caring for our health. These can serve to rejuvenate us – for more zealous service, not for more earthly pleasures! Will you resolve to leave the trivial and hedonistic pursuits which will only burn up in an instant at the Bema seat judgement? Either you are not convinced that Christ saved us for His service, or you are aware but you are searing your conscience about it? Unless you come face to face with this fact in 2018, you will not resolve to leave the world behind and revamp our life on earth to be what God saved you for.

Have a personal walk with God (Love and serve your LORD).One of the key focus of our theme this year is to draw every worshipper to a personal walk with our Lord. We have covered themes surrounding building up the church, our royal priesthood and striving together for the faith of the Gospel. This year’s theme is more about your personal fellowship with your LORD. You can be busy studying His Word and serving, which are basic expectations of the Christian life, but it is easy to neglect your inner man’s walk with God while doing all these. It is easy to hide behind being at activities without anyone knowing our true spiritual state. But God knows. And if we do not maintain a genuine and private fellowship with God, we will fall. It is just a matter of time. If you do not have and do not maintain a daily quiet time of meditating upon God’s Word and being in prayerful fellowship with your LORD, you will backslide. And if and when God deals with particular sins and points out failures in your Christian walk, and you dismiss it and sweep it under the carpet, you are on a dangerous path. Let 2018 be the year that you deal with sin and return to a close personal walk with the LORD your God. It is time to be honest with ourselves and God about this matter. We can fool others. But what is the point of that?

Have a God centred life from now on (With my all). You cannot have one foot in the world and the other in heaven. You cannot serve God and mammon. As the saying goes, if Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all in your life. Do you think that living solely for God, putting His kingdom first above all your ambitions and desires of life means a dreary life of drudgery? You will only know fulness of joy in the presence of God. Do you not believe that when we live a consecrated life, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps 16:11)? God cannot lie. The fun of this world is short lived. You will only know the true joy when you fear, walk with, love, and serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. The reason many Christians are not filled with joy is because they are not having a genuine personal daily and close walk with their Lord, living constantly in His Presence. When we want the best of both worlds, we will only remain miserable. Let 2018 be the year of a sincere and intimate walk with your God. Begin today.

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor