Dear BPCWAians, This is an Easter perhaps like no other that we have seen. In typical years, many of us would have started the day early at Easter Sunrise Service, gone back to church for breakfast before going for the Easter Worship Service and celebrating our church anniversary together. So, how will you spend this Easter? By the time you read this Pastoral, it would have been Easter morning. For those that used to go for Easter Sunrise Service, were you eagerly awaiting the online Easter Service though we could not have the Sunrise Service?

How we spend Easter this year will be a test of whether we previously spent it the way we did out of love for our Saviour, or simply for the “ambience”, “mood”, company of others or simply out of habit/tradition. In last week’s Pastoral, I suggested some devotions that you could do in the lead up to Easter Sunday. How you will spend this Easter today could make it an Easter to remember out of this COVID-19 year.

Start off the day with God. If you have not already started off the day with your Bible reading, then read a Psalm to gather your thoughts on Christ (eg Ps 16 or 40), or one of the many other Psalms that praise God for His goodness to us.

Worship together at our livestreamed Easter Service. Prepare yourself and your family. Be ready, physically and mentally, and have your Bibles and notebooks ready – as if you were in church. Don’t worry about the unwashed breakfast dishes in the sink – that can wait until the Service is over. Be still and pray for the worship as it is about to start. If needed, print out the Sunday bulletin available online so you know which Scripture references to turn to. As the prep hymn is announced, still yourself and everyone around, and prepare yourselves to worship God. Remember God is Omnipresent even as you sing “The Lord is in His Holy Temple”. He is in your midst. After the sermon is over, don’t rush off to prepare Easter lunch. Discipline yourself and your family to have a moment of silent prayer about what you’ve just heard in God’s Word. How you worship at home often reflects truly your heart of worship towards God.

Have Family Worship in the afternoon. There are many options to choose from, for your family worship today. 1) Reflect on the Sunday sermon. Summarise the key points taught during the sermon. Go round so each member of the family can share what they learned from the sermon. 2) Use Westminster Larger Catechism questions 51 to 60 with the family to reinforce what Christ has procured for us. 3) Use our Basic Bible Knowledge or Far Eastern Bible College’s Theology for Every Christian to go through lessons about Christ’s resurrection. Choose hymns relating to Christ’s resurrection to sing alone or together as a family.  Use this as an opportunity to talk to your children about the importance of believing in Christ themselves, personally.

An extended Quiet Time and devotion. Do you yearn to see our resurrected Lord? 1) Earnestly read through the accounts He has left for us in the Gospels (Matt 28, Mark 16, Luke  24, John 20-21) and in Acts 1:1-11. As  we also celebrate later today our church anniversary, mark out particular verses of our Lord’s instructions of the work that He has left for His church. 2) Pray and thank Him for electing an undeserving sinner like you “and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly place sin Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). Confess of your backsliding and sins, and plead for the Holy Spirit’s help as you endeavour to repent and change. 3) Reflect on any sins that God has convicted you of during this period, how you will take steps to avoid carelessly falling into them again, and what you will do to conform more into Christ’s image.

Together with this, you can use Chapter 32 of the Westminster Confession of Faith (which you can find at the back of the Basic Bible Knowledge book, or search for this chapter online) to remind ourselves of the state of man after death, and of the resurrection of the dead. While our YouTube videos of what I had already covered in this chapter are not yet available online, this is a time for those who were in Regen to pull out their WCF notes to refresh themselves on the topic. Or, just read it by yourself and search up the Bible verses to remind yourselves. It is a most appropriate year to build up a deeper appreciation of Christ’s death and resurrection. We must be deeply grateful for our salvation, and this must be reflected every day of our lives. Salvation is offered freely to us, but it did not come cheap. The gospel of cheap grace is a false gospel that does not save.

Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Col3:16): Take out your hymn books or look up the lyrics of hymns online, and praise Him in song. Think of the words as you sing. Choose hymns on the topic of Christ’s suffering for us, His victory over death, and of God’s love for us. Pray in your hearts as you sing to thank God for His election grace.

Thank God with BPCWA, your covenantal family, at our 34th Anniversary Thanksgiving Service at 5 pm. Join us online again in the evening to praise and thank God for His goodness to our church for the last 34 years. This would take you almost to the end of the Lord’s Day. Close off the day in meditating on the importance of the Church in God’s plan and purposes, and how precious it must be to you too. Pray  for BPCWA, that we will be faithful to Christ, the Head of our church, to uphold His truth and further His kingdom. Pray that you as an individual, and your family, and your covenantal family in BPCWA, will be true to Him and faithful to His Commission.

Re 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Yours in our Lord’s service, Pastor