The Only Way to Have a Blessed New Year
Dear BPCWA worshipper, This is the first Lord’s Day of 2025. Soon after the celebration of Christmas on 25th December, we ended yet another year. Each passing year marks another year checked off of our lives and this world’s existence. Yet another year was ushered in at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday as 2024 closed and 1st January 2025 started.
The uncertainty of life. While we often wish for a good year, 2024 ended on a rather ominous note for the world. The last days of 2024 were marked by tragedy, with 2 plane crashes happening a few days apart, in Kazakhstan and Korea. With flying becoming a normal occurrence in modern life, those who boarded their planes probably never thought this flight would have no disembarkation. As may be the case before a flight, they packed their luggage, perhaps even worried about the weight of their luggage, caught whatever sleep they could that night, or went onboard to catch up on their sleep. While we were about to start our Worship Service last Lord’s Day uneventfully, a passenger on the ill-fated flight reportedly texted a friend on the other side of the globe, “We can’t land . . . Should I write my final words?” No final words were ever sent or received. The flight burst into flames minutes after the text. A father said of his daughter that she saw no reason to call and leave a final message, “She was almost home – she thought she was coming home”. How would they have spent their final hours, what would have passed their minds, in their final hours on this side of eternity, had they known what was coming up? In a surprise of a different kind a day later, news broke of Jimmy Carter’s death, at 100. A Nobel Laureate praised by the world and the longest-lived ex-US president, his appointed time ended just 2 days short of 2025. As we consider these, we must realise the uncertainty of life, while acknowledging the certainty of death. This must stir us to live every moment in 2025 as if it were our last and not waste a single moment, else we will regret.
The uncertainty of world events. As Christians, we cannot ignore the events on the world’s stage. The war in the Middle East continues, with Israel slowly losing support from countries. Even the US, generally viewed as the most powerful nation on earth, has sometimes been unable to change the path in this war as allies. Meanwhile, the years-long war in Ukraine is beginning to be a drain on resources while Russia garners help from its allies. Repeated attempts at diplomacy could not bring peace to these regions. Instead, there seems to be new twists and more unrest as time passes! While the US plays a major role in brokering peace in many global conflicts, 2025 will also see a new US president taking the helm as he starts his term of office with one of the world’s richest people by his side. The latter is so powerful that his satellite internet system could turn the tide of the Ukraine war. What changes or new policies will be put in place with this new presidency that will affect the world at large? Today, the world recoils under the bloodshed brought about by the wars that diplomacy has been unable to resolve. It almost seems as if world events are reaching a stage where the world’s nations are being prepped to welcome anyone who can bring peace to the world stage. In biblical revelation, one such person the world awaits is the Antichrist. The Antichrist will mark the start of the tribulation period, as he “shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Da 9:27).
How to have a happy 2025. Perhaps we have gotten so used to bad news that it is no more shocking or saddening to us. The regularity at which it hits us has numbed us to its effects. The bad is “not so bad” anymore. And we assume that we can always continue life bidding the end of each year farewell and welcoming each new one. With such portentous signs, we must heed the Lord’s warning of His sudden and unexpected Return in Matthew 24:44, “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh”. Perhaps we have become so accustomed to the ominous signs and biblical warnings that you may think this pastoral is akin to something like “the boy who cried wolf” – a threat that never eventualises. Certainly, we don’t know when our lives will end, though we are warned that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). While there are those who “will say to my soul . . . take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry”, Christ instead says “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Lu 12:19-20). We also “know perfectly” that Christ’s coming cannot be pinpointed, since “that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1Th 5:2). Hence, such is precisely the complacency that Christ warns against when He says, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Mt 24:42-44). We can say, sing, and even talk about readiness and watchfulness for Christ’s coming, but we may not live with that readiness and watchfulness. Instead, we continue to live with the sins that the Holy Spirit has brought to our minds but don’t deal with them because we think they’re not too bad and we are already doing better than many with our outwardly righteous acts. We say that we love Christ, but we have little desire to spend time with Him, filling our moments with inconsequential activities instead of praying or reflecting on improving our spiritual walk. I am not saying that we should be hermits, and nomads, nor follow the patterns of the Roman Catholic monks or nuns. But let us be more reflective and meditative, and ponder how we spent the last days of 2024 and the first days of 2025. As we closed off 2024 on the theme, “Walk as Christ Walked”, are we watching as Christ did? If we thirst after God, we will certainly watch for and love His appearing!
Lu 12:37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor