Dear BPCWA worshipper, We are already into our second Lord’s Day in 2021.  Around the world, the New Year’s Eve celebrations were vastly different in 2020 as compared to previous years.  What had seemed to be “traditions” in various states and different countries were changed due to the COVID pandemic.  Little did we know on 31 Dec 2019 that a year later, the world would be so different.  While 31 December marked the last of the 365 days in 2020, March marked the beginning of a “new normal” for all of us – and since then, things haven’t quite fully returned to the “normal” that we used to know.  In view of that, I want to recap our Watchnight Service messages, entitled “What Shall Be On the Morrow?”, taken from James 4:13-17 “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:  14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.  16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.  17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” 

Go to now.  This is a wake-up call for all of us, a change of mindset.  We often think that we are in control of tomorrow, doing or saying things without a thought of God’s involvement in our life.  Has God been on your mind in all your decisions?  Furthermore, we are often self-willed in what we do.  We do things without considering God’s will.  We do what we want, go where we want to go, when we choose to.  Our aim is only our own gain – whether that gain is material gain, recognition, or our own achievements.  Ultimately, even as Christians, we often live life as if God does not matter or exist.  The awakening call is to cause us to realise that God is typically not in our considerations.

Life is a vapour.  The God who dwells in eternity summarizes life for us – it is like a vapour.  As vapour is fragile and unpredictable, so is life.  The COVID pandemic brought with it photographs of sights never seen before.  More deaths than mortuaries could fill, than coffins could be made.  Mass graves to bury the dead.  Men that were once healthy.  The elderly and vulnerable, the young and healthy – all fell under the hand of a little virus in a short time.  As vapour is beyond our control, so is life.  In winter, we occasionally see the condensation of the water vapor of our moist breath as a little cloud that soon disperses. Every time we see vapour, let us remember that that is our life. Ultimately, we have little control over how and eventually where it floats in an environment.  You may think you have control over your life, but in reality, we cannot even control the outcome of tomorrow despite our planning.  As vapour vanishes quickly, so life is short.  That is how short-lived your and my life is, in the whole chart of human history and eternity.  We cannot control our own lives, and life is as faint, weak, and fragile, uncontrollable, and short-lived as that condensation from our breaths.  God is in absolute control of my life, not me.  And so then, we must view our lives with humility before God when we see our nothingness before the Almighty One. 

What our heart’s attitude should be.  Knowing this verse, we often append “God willing” to our plans.  Sadly, what we often mean is that we have already decided what we want for our lives, what we plan to do, and our hearts often really mean “God, please be willing to help me fulfill my plans”.  This is not what v15 means.  When we say “God willing”, it should mean “if it is the Lord’s will” ie it ought to mean 1) as I fulfill my human responsibility in planning and acting, my wish, aim, and hope is that what I am doing is what God wants and wills in this matter.  And 2) while I plan and act, my desire is that God will time, lead, and divert according to His will.  Finally, 3) whatever are the results, I am submitted to His will for the outcomes because I only desire that His purposes are fulfilled, not mine.  I must place my life into God’s Hands, because my vapour may vanish tomorrow.  Another attitude for 2021 is to remember this in all our ways – the reason why God allows this vapour to live another day is that He has a will and purpose for it.  If I have life tomorrow, it belongs to God, because I live on borrowed time from the Almighty who has my days numbered.  With such a heart, our time is used for God.  Any gain that we get from every day’s borrowed time is the Lord’s.  All of my days are Yours, all of my gain is Yours, my Lord and my God.  As Calvin said, “My heart I offer to you, O Lord, promptly and sincerely.”

Stop being arrogant.  Realising all this, we must then stop all boasting and rejoicing – that my results are due to my planning, my cleverness, and my foresight – as if it were something that I could control.  Let us start being humble before God in 2021.  If I recover from an illness, it is God that worked.  If I am successful without having cheated or done anything outside of His word, it is God that has given the result.  All that we have is borrowed from the bounties of God’s goodness.  The fact that we can accomplish anything at all is because God has been merciful and brought to pass all things.

When I have a today and tomorrow.  It is because God has spared this vapour for a short breath more.  Hence, that day must be used for God.  If I have a tomorrow, I must fulfill the purposes that He has for me, I must stop sinning and live for His will.  If I refuse to repent, He may take away that vapour.  1Cor 11:30  – “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”  Knowing now that life is short, meant for God, and that it is sinful if I boast of another day in my control, then if God gives me a tomorrow and I don’t do His will tomorrow, it is sin because I should use that tomorrow for Him.  We often already know God’s will, but if we won’t do it, that is sin.  Have you gotten right with God and with man on things if you failed to do so in 2020?  Have you lived and planned without relation to God’s will and reliance on His help?  Have you sought only His will and submitted to His outcomes in 2020?  It is time to respond to His awakening call – go to now – and resolve to get right in 2021.

As we start off in 2021, let us resolve to do the following: 1) Make every moment in our lives count for God.  2) Every plan to genuinely fulfill God’s purposes and His will.  3) Every choice in time and money to be used to increase spirituality and not carnality.  4) Humbly submit every point of my life, will, and desires to God.  5) Live for God today as if tomorrow may never come.  Tomorrow… we will stand before God and give an account to Him of the many “todays” that He has given us. 

Gal 2:20   … the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Yours in our Lord’s service,

Pastor