Prayer Request

1. Pray for Khye Lin, Chui Peeng, Joshua, Thomas, Ming Xian & Mehes who will be attending YMCA Bible Quiz.

2. Pray for Cheh Ho who will be sitting his SPM exam.

3. Pray for Corps family: Mrs Chin and Kok Keong

4. Pray for Corps family: Blessy, Matthew, Davi, Kesha and Yen Wong.

Announcements

1. Youth Worship
Date: 13/11/11 (Sun) Time: 7:30pm Venue: Worship Hall
Worship: Lieut Fiona; Bible Messenger: Bro Tan; Games: Joseph & Capt Tan

2. Band Practice
Date: 16/11/11 (Wed) Time: 8:00pm Venue: Corp Worship Hall
We encourage all who are able to join and come for practice.

3. Cell Group
Date: 18/11/11 (Fri) Time: 8:15pm Venue: Bro Tan's home
Let's gather together to learn and pray for the Corps and one another.

4. General Call All Salvationist to Pray
Date: Every Thursday Time: 7:30am - 8:30am Venue: At your own place or location.
General is calling all Salvationist around the world in a 24 hour prayer meeting. Pray for the Salvation Army works around the world.

5. Christmas Carolling and Band Practice
Date: 20/11/11 (Sun) Time: 12:30pm Venue: Corps Worship Hall
Please stay back for carolling practice. First half hour for singing practice and second half hour for band practice.

6. Penang Christmas Open House
Date: 18/12/11 (Sun) Time: 7:00pm Venue: Auto City, BM
All are welcome.

A good return?

Major Stuart Barker identifies the vital goal of Back To Church Sunday

STUDY PASSAGE: DEUTERONOMY 30:1–10

TO come back is to return. An obvious statement, but it points to a key word to consider on Back To Church Sunday tomorrow (25 September).

God’s call to the people of Israel to return to him and his enabling of their return to the Promised Land are recurring features in the Old Testament. In encouraging people to come back to church – to God’s ‘new Israel’ – we can benefit from reflecting on this ancient concept of returning to God.

God’s word, spoken to his people through Moses, made it clear that he always knew his people would, at various times, wander from their allegiance to him – the one true God. But it also revealed that many would return from these wanderings and that God had already planned their way back.

‘When you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul… then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul… Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands… The Lord will again delight in you’ (Deuteronomy 30:2–9 all quotations from New International Version unless stated otherwise).

It is abundantly clear from these verses that it is God’s deepest desire for his wandering, errant people to return to the place where they belong.

To ‘the land that belonged to your ancestors’ (v5), where he wants to bless them with his love and mercy.

To ‘have compassion on you’ and make up for the lost time of wandering; to ‘restore your fortunes’ (v3).

To grow them as a people numerically, to ‘make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors’ (v5).

To grow them spiritually in a way they had previously not experienced: ‘The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul’ (v6 New Living Translation).

To make them a fruitful and productive people: ‘Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands’ (v9).

It is also clear from this passage that we must be careful not to limit the possibility of who may return, for God promised to bring back exiles from even ‘the most distant land under the heavens’ (v4).

The truths gleaned from these verses also remind us that, when we invite and encourage people to come ‘back to church’, it is not simply an exercise to complete or a box to tick.

It is an ongoing mission, in which we are God’s agents through whom he graciously reaches out to those who have drifted from his planned place for them: ‘The Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land’ (vv4 and 5).

‘The Lord will again delight in you’ (v9) carries overtones of the celebration party planned by the father when the lost son returned from his wanderings in the parable told by Jesus. It brings great delight and celebration in Heaven when those who have drifted away from their rightful place in the family return.

Though we must be cautious about assuming that all whom we want to come back to church have drifted away entirely from their relationship with God, it is clear from the Old Testament teaching on ‘return’ that the vital goal is the return of God’s people to their relationship with him.

A return into their rightful place or community is something that should naturally accompany that restored relationship.

• Major Barker is corps officer at Hull Citadel

Corps Outing - Badminton Oct 2011

Click here for more photos

Prayer Request

1. Pray for Khye Lin, Chui Peeng, Joshua and primary school children who will be attending YMCA Bible Quiz,

2. Pray for Youth Hostel Bomba approval

3. Pray for Corps Youth Camp 8-10 Dec 2011

4. Pray for Corps family: Jihhan, Soon Teong, Ah Hong, Jack, Steven, Kok Chuan and Ash.

Announcements

1. Self Denial - 6 Nov 2011
Thank you all for your offering and giving to help the people of Kenya East & West, India West and Latvia.

2. Youth Worship
Date: 06/11/11 (Sun) Time: 7:30pm Venue: Worship Hall
Worship: Cheh Ho; Bible Reading: Raymond; Offering: Eng Chai; Bible Messenger: Bro Tan

3. Band Practice
Date: 09/11/11 (Wed) Time: 8:00pm Venue: Corp Worship Hall
We encourage all who are able to join and come for practice.

4. Prayer Ministry
Date: 11/11/11 (Fri) Time: 8:15pm Venue: Corp Worship Hall
Let's gather together to pray for the Corps and one another.

5. Senior Citizen Fellowship
Date: 12/11/11 (Sat) Time: 8:00am Venue: Abu Siti Lne
Please contact Capt Tan for more information.

6. Ladies Fellowship
Date: 12/11/11 (Sat) Time: 8:00pm Venue: Corps
Ladies please take note.

7. General Call All Salvationist to Pray
Date: Every Thursday Time: 7:30am - 8:30am Venue: At your own place or location.
General is calling all Salvationist around the world in a 24 hour prayer meeting. Pray for the Salvation Army works around the world.

8. Christmas Carolling and Band Practice
Date: 13/11/11 (Sun) Time: 12:30pm Venue: Corps Worship Hall
Please stay back for carolling practice. First half hour for singing practice and second half hour for band practice.

The source of life

A study for Harvest by Major Paul Latham

STUDY VERSE COLOSSIANS 1:16

THE values of Heaven were always to the forefront in what Jesus thought and said. He was also keenly aware of the natural world around him – foxes have holes, birds have nests. He noticed how the wheat grew in different types of soil and what happened when you planted mustard seed. He often used parables from what he saw in nature and farming because these things were familiar to the people among whom he lived.

Our world is different. We may not come into contact with nature unless we are on holiday or retired. Yet unless we stop, look and listen to that other world, we can miss important lessons that God has for us.

The wonderful richness of creation leads us to worship.

‘Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him’ (John 1:3 Good News Bible). There’s another world out there, carrying on with its living pretty much independent of us. Think of the grace of a red squirrel, the growth of a young Scots pine or the song of a blackbird.

We can so easily miss the sense of wonder that is demonstrated in the Psalms: ‘When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man… ?’ (Psalm 8:3 and 4 this and all further quotations from Authorised Version). See also Psalm 24:1, 89:11 and 1 Corinthians 10:26.

We are advised to consider the ways of the ant (Proverbs 6:6; 30:25), to observe the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:28).

Does wonder lead you to worship?

The miracle of life – the life that is in each animal or plant – is the same, but no two plants or animals are the same.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard or leaven (Matthew 13:31–33). When we allow Jesus into our lives, we become alive. Through obedience to him, we grow into the individual, unique person he wants us to be.

In him is life and the life was – and still is – the light of all (John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25).
The tiny seed grows into the beautiful poppy or the useful oak tree. It is reckoned that in medieval England, the managed woodland produced 64 items that could be marketed. In spring, the grey winter world explodes into colour as daffodils and crocuses push through the dead grass.

From the day on which Jesus is received into our hearts, God can build up in us a life of his workmanship so that we radiate his presence and power in the world. As the members of the Council in Jerusalem looked at the disciples, they recognised them as men who had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

Reflect on the influence of godly people you know. What’s their secret?

Self-sacrifice is a principle of creation. The seed must ‘die’ to produce the new plant. The horse chestnut seed is beautiful, but unless it is planted it simply shrivels up and dies. The grain of wheat must die to produce the new crop (John 12:24).

Consider what Jesus teaches his disciples in Matthew 16:21–26. Our natural desire is to hang on to life as tightly as possible! We don’t want to do anything that might endanger our safety, health or comfort.

By contrast, following Jesus may mean finding ourselves in unsafe, unhealthy and difficult places. But there is nothing material that can compensate for the loss of eternal life (Luke 9:24). Which path will you take?

Nature demonstrates the miracle of conversion. ‘The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose’ (Isaiah 35:1 Authorised Version).

In the dry bush land of northern Kenya – where severe drought is now affecting the lives of many people – The Salvation Army had a project which enabled farmers to collect the little rainwater that fell and use it to grow food crops where they had never been able to grow them before. The people found it hard to believe their eyes! They thought a miracle had taken place.

Jesus told the woman at the well that he could give her a well of water springing up to everlasting life (John 4:14).

What evidence do our lives show of the presence of Jesus?

• Major Latham lives in retirement in Forneth, Perthshire