Dear BPCWA worshipper, By the time you read this pastoral, it will have been 11 days into 2026, and 3% of 2026 will have passed, even though the Watchnight Service is still fresh on our minds! The months that we spent planning for Christmas Service, Watchnight Service, and the Holiday Bible Program have passed. As we have our first Session Meeting in 2026 today, the church will begin planning for another round of programs, God willing.

Some for whom their time ended in 2025. As I look back on my pastoral a year ago, I recounted the tragedies that 2024 ended with. A year later, as 2025 ended, tragic losses of life again hit the headlines. First, there was the fire of multiple high-rise apartments in Hong Kong. The youngest death was a 1-year-old baby, and the oldest was 97. Those who read of it must have been horrified at the thought of dying, trapped in a towering inferno. The heat was so intense that, after the fire, what remained were ashes. There were accounts of how it seemed like just another regular day for many, picking a child from school, going to work, but never returning to the life, home, and family they were accustomed to before that. Closer to home, there was the Bondi Beach shooting in December. 15 were killed before the day closed, most while celebrating a religious festival. The youngest victim was 10 years old. Another was an 87-year-old man, a Holocaust survivor. These deaths hit the headlines, and so we knew of the young and old, and those who had a 2^nd lease of life, but whose lives ended in 2025. Their times on earth ended on the day of their deaths. Taking note of these sudden deaths, Prime Minister Albanese’s Christmas message spoke of “those whose lives were stolen — and those whose lives were changed forever”.

Only a short lifetime. I remember a childhood song about a grandfather’s clock which “was bought on the morn of the day that he was born”. Those were the days when people sang about what happened in a family’s everyday life. The chorus went, “Ninety years without slumbering, Tick, tock, tick, tock, His life seconds numbering, Tick, tock, tick, tock”. What I never knew until now was another chorus which apparently went, “It rang an alarm in the dead of the night, An alarm that for years had been dumb; And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight, that his hour of departure had come”. This same clock “stopped short never to go again” when the grandfather died. Simple as the lyrics may be, there was an alarming reality to the poignancy of the thoughts behind the lyrics – our life is indeed measured by time in the sense of limitation. Job says of man’s life, “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?” (Job 7:1). Just as we often comment that time has passed so quickly, Job concurs, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job 7:6). Many who are reading this pastoral may be able to recount the age they first came to Perth. Some were very young, some in the vigour of youth, and some middle-aged. The years have passed, and many may no longer feel the vigour of youth. Time has just flown by.

What will be on your plate for the 365 days in 2026?  If God permits and allows, we may sing again during the Watchnight Service, “Another Year is Dawning” on 31 December 2026. That seems to be so far down the road. But that was probably exactly what we said a year ago. As we look back, did we spend 2025 well? Before 2026 slips by, let us take stock of what lies ahead of us. Even by the time you read this pastoral, we only have 354 days remaining in 2026. Knowing time flies quickly past isn’t sufficient. At the start of the year, the question I want to pose to you is, “How will you spend your time in 2026?” Christians are commanded to redeem the time, “because the days are evil” (Eph 5:16). 7 hours of sleep a day (for those of us who have the privilege to get that) means 30% of the time that we can use for the day. Then there are the daily necessities, work, or school. You can do the calculations. The point is, if God gives us a year, we must strive to use that year profitably for Him so that we can look back on the 365 days without regret. The lesson we learn from a buffet table is that a little bit here and there adds up to a heaped plate by the end of the table. What we add to our calendar appointments must be carefully considered, because they contribute to whether we will spend 2026 wastefully or wisely. We must be especially careful if they are recurring but unnecessary activities that take a chunk out of our weekly slots for our spiritual pursuit of God and serving Him. We often analyse our dinner plates to assess if what we have on our plates contribute to our physical health. Do we ask the same about our schedules? Does what is on our plate speak of a healthy spiritual diet? 

God gives us life for a purpose. We each have but only one physical life before that time ends for us on earth. For some, as in those in the Hong Kong fire or the Bondi Beach shooting, they may only have hardly started. Young though our children may be, let us not think that the time to consider their salvation is “later”. Parents, be earnest in teaching your children about the gospel of salvation. And more importantly, teach your children the value of a life lived profitably for God and not in vanity. Young people and adults, consider your time. Death may come, or the Lord may come before your death. Be ready, whether in 2026 or beyond, according to God’s appointed time. Live today ready to meet God, as if tomorrow never comes. If this were your last year, if today were your last day, how would you want to spend it before you meet your Lord?

“Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” (Pro 27:1)

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor