Announcements

1. New Year Celebration (Evengelical Event):
1st March 2010, 7pm at PISA Event Hall. Evangelical 8 Course Dinner. Pastor Lim Yee Tong will be perfoming and sharing. A joint Churches efforts, co-hosted with MCA. We have 10 reserved tickets; please see Captain Tan for the tickets.

2. Cell group will be held at Thursday, 4th March 2010, 8:30pm, at Kim Aun & Jasinta house.

3. KL Corps family Camp.
28-30th May 2010, Bayu Bech Resort (Port Dickson). Our speaker will be Major Pascoe.
Fee: Personal Responsibility. Please contact Captain Tan for registration the soonest this March.

Prayer Request

1. Please pray for the forming of Corps Council and Corps programme and future Corps Development.

2. Also remember all our Corps memebers, praying for the revival in our Corps and memebers, to be more committed in God's minitries and reach out.

3. Community Service, there are a lot of challenges for our Corps to take up the Community Serice, i.e. budget, discerment, manpower and etc.

4. Pray for those people for a sick in our Corps

5. Pray for SPM candidate boys that God will give them the direction after they receive they SPM exam result.

Wedding of Bro Soon Bee and Wei Lin

We could like to congratulate our Bro Soon Bee and Wei Lin on their wedding held in the Penang Corps on the 6th Feb 2010, Saturday.

The ceremony was conducted by corps officer Capt Tan and Brenda together with some officers Major Leong, Major Chelvee, Major Kamala and Mdm Tong.

It was a joyous occasion with family members, relatives, friends, colleagues from both bride and bridegroom coming together witnessing their wedding. Some even came from far away just to attend their wedding.

There was singing of hymns, worship songs, prayers, and a wonderful and lively message of love by Capt Tan.

This was follow by the exchange of marriage vow and signing ceremony. A photo session was also held with the family members, relatives, friends, colleagues, church members and TSA officers, follow by a buffet lunch at the community hall.

We would like to thank those involve to make their marriage a successfully and wonderful one to be remember and cherish for the rest of their life.

Later in the evening, a wedding reception dinner was held at the Hotel City Bayview.

The evening was filled with music, wedding toast and cake cutting ceremony. Bro Soon Bee dedicated a song to her beautiful wife.

We pray that this newly husband and wife will bind their everlasting love and continue to love God as they journey into a family live together.

Who is in the driving seat?

Driving Lessons': Drawing on her experience as a learner driver, CATHERINE WYLES looks at the basic theory and practicals of being a Christian

I CAN vividly recall my first driving lesson. I was 30 years old and physically sick at the thought of being behind the wheel.

‘What have you driven before?' my driving instructor asked, hopefully.

‘Nothing,' I replied.

‘Not even a dodgem car?'

‘Not even a bike,' I whispered.

He then looked for an empty car park in which to teach me. (I had a suspicion he also started to pray.) I knew nothing about driving. I hadn't even been brought up in a car-owning family. It was a new and alien world.

Steering wheelWhen someone becomes a Christian they can have a similar feeling. They may have made a confession of faith, but what happens next? Surely there's more to being a Christian than calling yourself a Christian.

My first lesson showed me the importance of the driving seat. Maybe the first thing to ask is: ‘Who is in the driving seat in our lives?'

Psychologists tell us that humankind has a natural self-preservation mechanism. I'm not sure that's right.

The early chapters of the Bible tell us that when God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve enjoyed an open, innocent, intimate relationship with their Creator. This was their God-intended, natural state. They happily acknowledged their dependence on God. Then things started to go wrong.

Satan sowed doubt into Eve's mind: ‘Did God really say, "You must not eat from any tree in the garden"?' (Genesis 3:1 New International Version).

She replied: ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die"' (3:2, 3).

Satan then tempted Eve first to disbelieve God, and secondly to be her own judge.

‘You will not surely die,' he said. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil' (3:4).

Satan tempted her with independence. His blunt message was: ‘You can do without God.' And Eve believed it. She then persuaded Adam to do the same.

In saying that they didn't need their Creator, Adam and Eve broke the quality of their relationship with God. They put themselves into the driving seat. And ever since, the default setting of humanity has been to want to manage our lives without reference to God.

One of the key elements of becoming a Christian is to acknowledge that streak of rebellion within us and to invite Jesus into the driving seat of our lives.

This does not mean that we are no longer responsible for our decisions or actions - we are. But it does mean that we seek and follow Jesus' direction in the things we say, think and do. In a nutshell, when Jesus says ‘Follow me', we do.

It is only by doing this that we can enjoy an intimate relationship with our Creator, the one that he intended for Adam and Eve.

So, who is in the driving seat of our life? Whose way and will are we following? If it is still our own, then it's time to move over, hand control to Jesus and begin the most exciting journey of our lives.

War Cry 6 February 2010 - TSA UK

Don't go branching off!

HAVE you ever bought a full, juicy and delicious bunch of grapes, but then placed them in the fridge and forgotten they were there? A couple of weeks later you rediscover the bag, only to find that the once-juicy fruit is now dried and shrivelled.

VineThe length of time that grapes stay full and juicy once they have been taken from the vine is not very long at all. They lose their freshness because they have been disconnected from the source that gave them life.

I discovered from Guinness World Records that the oldest vine still bearing grapes is in Slovenia. Experts have confirmed that it is more than 400 years old.

People have been cultivating vines for more than a few hundred years. They were part of everyday rural life in Bible times. Jesus' friends were familiar with vines, and so they were likely to have understood what he meant when he said: ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing' (John 15:5 New International Version).

While the people who heard Jesus' words would probably have realised what he was trying to say, some of us who live in 21st-century cities might struggle with it. As fruit is already bagged and waiting to be picked up in the supermarket, references to the agricultural world are not always easy to understand.

When Jesus claimed to be the vine he was saying that if we are not connected to him, we will not be able to draw the strength and life he offers to give us. If we connect ourselves to him and accept his help, the problems we face - which threaten to drain the life out of us - seem more manageable.

Jesus wants us to bear fruit in our lives - he wants us to speak the right words and act in ways that will make our lives and the lives of other people better. We can do that only if we develop an attachment to him.

We cannot flourish if we are cut off. Jesus is the source of life.

War Cry 30 January 2010 - TSA UK

It all hinges on the gate

THE term ‘gated community' may conjure up images of exclusive developments of luxury homes where residents live luxurious lifestyles. To enter the cushy cul- de-sac, you need to have the right information or permission to open the gate.

‘Gated communities' come in varying shapes and sizes. They also provoke varying reactions. Do they provide security or increase tension in society?

A writer in The Independent noted that when Sir Ian Blair was Metropolitan Police Com­missioner he described gated communities as ‘invidious' and said: ‘We want an open society which is at ease with itself, not one from which groups of people withdraw.' But the former Home Secretary David Blunkett wanted more gated communities in deprived areas to ‘make available to the many what is currently available to the few'.

SheepWhatever the truth might be about housing projects, even the most humble gate has a dual role. It signifies security when closed and accessibility when opened. It represents safety and welcome.

Perhaps that is why Jesus told his followers: ‘I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep' (John 10:7 New International Version).

In Bible times, a sheep-pen had one opening. The shepherd would often lie in that opening at night, acting as a gate. It is noteworthy that, shortly after saying he was the gate, Jesus also described himself as ‘the good shepherd' (10:11).

The shepherd would guide the sheep into the pen and then provide security from predators by blocking the entrance. The only way for any sheep to get into the pen was through the shepherd.

In Jesus' saying, the sheep represent the people who accept his invitation to follow God. It is Jesus who offers access to a relationship with God.

He showed the way to God through his words and actions. When he laid down his life for us and when God raised him from death he opened not just a way but the way for us to experience God in our lives.

To accept the offer Jesus makes, we must ask him to forgive us for our wrong­doings and then accept his guidance in our lives.

If we do, we will be welcomed into God's family and experience the security of knowing that he is always there for us.

War Cry 23 January 2010 - TSA UK

Light that we can't live without

Who do you think you are? - a series by Paul Holifield looking at Jesus in his own words

‘IF it weren't for electricity, we'd all be watching television by candlelight,' observed American comedian George Gobel.

Joking apart, it is difficult to imagine life without electricity. We rely on it so much in our daily lives that we don't even think about it. We flick on a switch and there it is - available, all day and night.

When the electricity supply temporarily fails, it seems as though the world is about to end. Transport grinds to a halt, sources of entertainment vanish and work stops as equipment fails. How did people ever live without it?

It is thanks to men such as Thomas Edison that electricity is easily available to so many people in the Western world. He created the first safe and economic system for distributing it when he established the first public power station.

One of Edison's reasons for wanting to make electricity widely available was to encourage people to use one of his inventions - the incandescent light bulb. For that one invention the American deserves the lion's share of the credit for lighting up the world.

However, it was Jesus who claimed to be ‘the light of the world'. But what did he mean? Why would Jesus claim such a thing?

Jesus made his an­nouncement during the Feast of Tabernacles. In this Jewish festival a ceremony took place in which several large candles were lit in the Temple precinct.

As the people were enjoying the light from the candles, Jesus took the opportunity to use this act to illustrate his teaching.

What he said must have been a shock for his listeners. He said: ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life' (John 8:12 New International Version).

We live in a dark, decaying and dying world. Countries go to war. Families fall out. Individuals hurt each other. But God does not want us to resign ourselves to a dark future. In Jesus he has given us an answer to the darkness. If we turn our attention to him, he will shed a whole new light on our lives.

Those who do put their trust in him wonder: How did we ever live without him!

War Cry 16 January 2010 - TSA UK

More than just a crumb of comfort

THERE is something appealing and comforting about freshly baked, crusty bread. The makers of TV adverts realise this. A recent Hovis advertisement also appealed to our sense of nostalgia as a boy ran through the decades to de­liver a loaf of bread in time for tea.

Every day in the UK an astonishing nine million loaves of bread are sold. In recent years, when diets have dominated much of people's time and imagination, bread has sometimes been seen as a food to avoid. But it continues to be a part of many people's staple diet.

Jesus said: ‘I am the bread of life' (John 6:35 Good News Bible), and his listeners were confused.

They asked Jesus questions, making requests for bread to eat. Maybe their minds were on their stomachs.

Jesus had recently fed 5,000 of them with only five loaves and two fish. Rather than wanting signs and explanations, the people really wanted to be fed again - to have their stomachs filled.

But Jesus had his mind on something much more important.

He wanted to turn their desire for bread into a desire for a different kind of food - spiritual food.

Jesus encouraged them to have faith and to believe that, just as they needed food to live on earth, they also needed him so that they could live a life with purpose and one which lasts for eternity.

What sort of things are you hungry for in your life? Are you like some of the crowds who listened to Jesus but who wanted their physical needs met? Do you long for good food, a comfortable home and a healthy bank balance?

You may have tried to satisfy this type of hunger by trying to accumulate wealth. Many people have - and many of them have found that it has not brought them the satisfaction they thought.

But Jesus says to us today, just as he said to people centuries ago, that he is the bread of life. He can satisfy that hunger, that feeling of wanting more in our lives, if we are willing to follow him.

War Cry 9 January 2010 - TSA UK

A journey into the unknown

‘SPACE: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.' The words of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) launched each episode of a television programme that became a classic.

The first Star Trek series beamed up onto TV screens in 1966. Created by Gene Roddenberry, it was set on board a 23rd-century spaceship and portrayed the dangers and moral dilemmas faced by the crew.

Since the first episode was aired, the show has inspired feature films, spin-off dramas, an animated series and a No 1 single, ‘Star Trekkin'.

Starship 'Enterprise'
But Star Trek's take-off was not as smooth as its longevity might lead viewers to believe. It took two pilot episodes to convince the television company to make the programme and it was almost cancelled after the second series.

But it survived its faltering start and generations of fans have watched engrossed as the captain has led his crew to ‘boldly go where no man has gone before'.

As we stand at the beginning of a new year we may be able to identify with the sentiments of Kirk's words. A new year can seem like a voyage into the unknown. Who knows what this new year will bring?

We may be apprehensive or excited at the prospect of new experiences and challenges. Or we may be feeling a little lost. But we are not alone on our journey.

God has promised to be there with us each step of the way. In the Bible God paints a picture to show that no bad experience of life need overwhelm us. He says: ‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze' (Isaiah 43:2 New International Version).

There is not an experience where God is not available to help us and guide us.

We may not be able to change where we have come from; we may even feel that, like Star Trek, we've had a faltering beginning. But we can change where we are going. Our future does not have to be a carbon copy of a disappointing past - God does not want that. He wants our journey into the new year to be positive, enjoyable and one that includes him.

War Cry 2 January 2010 - TSA UK