Year: 2019

Revisiting our 2019 Church Theme

Dear BPCWAians, As this is the last Sunday of 2019, let us take a closing look at our church theme, taken from Acts 2:42 “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Continuing stedfastly. What a wonderful testimony of the first New Testament church worshipers. Has this been your testimony too? It isn’t just about having good aspirations at the start of the year. It is not just about putting those into action in January. More importantly, it is about continuing stedfastly. Children often start off on a new hobby or project very enthusiastically, but they lack that sustaining motivation to keep at it to the end. What about you?

Read more

Christmas: What’s in a name?

Dear BPCWAians, Christmas is just around the corner. Retailers do not stop reminding us that Christmas is coming. Almost every day, you see mailers and emails enticing you to buy things from shops. In our bulletin today, you see  an announcement for the Christmas Service. Every year around Christmas, we have held a Christmas Gospel meeting before that as well. At the same time, do you know that there are sections of Christians that vehemently protest against Christmas? This includes a number of Puritans, some writers that you may be familiar with (even A.W. Pink), and even some Christians groups today. We certainly are not promoting turning Christmas into a shopping and dining season. But in this pastoral, we want

Read more

Popular online theology may not be Biblical theology

Dear BPCWAians, Over the past 2 weeks, we have looked at the usefulness of media to Christendom, as well as looked at some of the dangers that every one of us should be mindful of when using “Christian” material online. In this Pastoral, we conclude with looking at the teachers, their teachings, and God’s ordained means for the Christian to grow and learn about Him. Be careful of learning theology from online devotionals, blogs and social media. These days, there are online devotionals or Bible studies that you can subscribe to and receive daily. It is a popular thing. These devotionals may tell stories of daily sorrows, joys, trials, tearjerkers and heartaches that would strike a chord in many hearts,

Read more

The dangers of learning indiscriminately from media

Dear BPCWAians, Last week, we saw how much media has become an almost indispensable part of our modern lives. How should Christians respond to the influx of online information in our lives? How can we guard ourselves against it? We are not saying that only BPCWA has sound information, but we must take note of God’s warnings and be discerning when we receive information: 2Pet 2:18-19 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. (19) While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same

Read more

Is all Christian media good?

Dear BPCWAians, We live in an information age, full of information from many sources. Daily, many of us get our information for different areas of our lives from various forms of media. While previously handwritten materials were the main, if not only, means of passing on information, the dissemination of information was greatly accelerated with the invention of the printing press. This invention, which greatly advanced the cause of the Reformation through the printing of Bibles, marked the start of print media. Since the use of print media greatly aided the advancement of God’s truth in the 1500s, does it mean that all “Christian” media is good today? Types of modern media used for dissemination of information. The last few

Read more

Time to fulfil the Great Commission – Who are you inviting this year?

Dear BPCWAians, As we approach the end of the year, it is an exciting and busy period for the church, with several major activities coming up. The Christmas Gospel meeting, the Christmas Day Service, Watchnight Service, and the Holiday Bible Program are all taking place within a 3 week period. So why do we plan these into our church calendar and activities? What part do you have to play in these activities? Why do we even take the trouble to prepare the invitation flyers for distribution to our worshippers? We do so for 2 reasons:- 1. So that you and your family can worship God and grow through all these activities yourselves. 2) So that each of you can think

Read more

Why did the Apostle Paul tell women to keep silence? So can women teach or not?

Dear BPCWAians, Last week we saw that God does not prohibit women from teaching in the church. Also, we established that the Bible does not limit women to teach on things related to womanhood only. But what about women being told by the Apostle Paul to “keep silence in the churches” (1 Cor 14:34) and “I suffer not a woman to teach” (1 Tim 2:12)? Are there contradictions in Scriptures? Who can women teach? The Bible does not contradict itself. Some people erroneously use these verses to insist that women cannot teach women in church. We shall look at these this week. What does women to “keep silence in the churches” (1 Cor 14:34) refer to? Firstly, we know it

Read more

Can Women teach in the church?

Dear BPCWAians, Recently, someone imbibed and sought to convince some in our church the belief that women should not be allowed to teach women anything relating to doctrines. This person, before leaving our church, tried to sway people to believe that women can only teach things related to womanhood. And even if women were allowed to teach these things, the women must not do so in the church building, but in people’s houses instead. Is this a biblical concept? What does the Bible say about women teaching in the church? What can women teach? The need to address this issue. Worshippers may hold different views about certain practices, but when the views are clearly unbiblical, it is no longer a

Read more

Lest we forget – Remembering the 1517 Reformation

Dear BPCWAians, Beginning 2013, every last Sunday of October, we commemorate the 1517 Protestant Reformation. In 2017, many churches around the world celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. But why do we continue to do this every year? Is it simply because it’s our church’s “tradition” to do so? I want to take some time to help us understand just 2 of the many reasons why it is important for us as a church to continue to keep remembering the Reformation annually. Be reminded that God exercises His Sovereignty to protect His true church. Just a little over 1,500 years after Christ’s death, God’s church had degenerated into something that bore little resemblance to the New Testament church that

Read more

How do you respond to reproof?

Dear BPCWAians, I hope that from last week’s Pastoral, we have searched our hearts to see if our hearts have reflected the traits of the simple, the scorner and the foolish. We must realise and be concerned about that because such people have rejected the true wisdom that is in God’s word, and have elevated other things above God’s wisdom. And there are great consequences. That is why God warns us and reproves us for our good. How would you respond? This week, we will conclude with the remaining 2 messages preached at the morning devotion. What is reproof? Reproof is God’s way of restraining us, to stop us from doing something; or to start doing something that we do

Read more
View More