Sunday, July 29, 2012

Announcements

1. Youth Sport
Date: 29/07/12 (Sun) Time: 3:00pm Venue: Moon Gate 5.
All youth please take note.

2. Combined Cell Group
Date: 03/08/12 (Fri) Time: 8:15pm Venue: Corps Community Hall
Combined North and South region cell group at Corps. Please come and join us.

3. Corps Sport and Outing
Date: 31/08/12 (Fri) Venue: Pulau Aman
Please contact Sis Jasinta for more information. The fees are RM6.00 = ferry, RM15.00 = food.

4. Open Day Coupon
Brother and Sister are encouraged to help to sell the open day coupons and help to find sponsors for the stall. Please return unsold coupons before 05/08/12. Please contact Capt Brenda for more information. Open Day will be held on 08/09/2012 time: 8:30am-2:00pm.

5. Senior Breakfast Fellowship
Date: 04/08/12 (Sat) Time: 8:00am Venue: Corps Pay Terubong.
Please contact Capt Tan for more information.

6. Banana Leaf Ministry
Date: 11/08/12 (Sat) Time: 11:00am Venue: Community Hall
Volunteers and helper are needed. Please contact Capt Tan for more information.

7. Local Officer Conference
Date: 18-20/08/12 (Sat) Time: 11:00am Venue: William Booth College of Mission
Please do pray for all officer and local officers who will attend this conference in Singapore.

Prayer Request

1. Please intercede for Chris and Sheila new born baby.

2. Please intercede for Penang Open Day 08/09/12.

3. Please intercede for Local Officers Conference in Singapore.

4. Please intercede for Colonel Gillian Downer for a good health.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The mind of Christ

STUDY PASSAGE 1 CORINTHIANS 2

WOULDN’T it be wonderful to have access to Albert Einstein’s brain? Imagine if his thoughts became your thoughts! It is 57 years since Einstein died and science and technology have come a long way since then. With today’s pool of knowledge and Einstein’s mental dexterity, what could you accomplish if his brain were at your disposal?

The scientific mind might not be your first choice. Perhaps you could make good use of the genius of filmmaker Steven Spielberg or musician Kate Bush. Imagine the journey through the creative process with that kind of barrier-free imagination! If you could link into those minds, what contribution would you make?

As much as we might love to examine the thoughts of these brilliant people, we have access to something far greater. 1 Corinthians 2:16 tells believers that ‘we have the mind of Christ’ (all quotations from New International Version).

This is a remarkable statement! How can a mere human know the thoughts of God?

In verse 6, Paul begins building up to the dramatic declaration of verse 16. The first thing he wants his readers to understand is that God’s wisdom and human wisdom are nothing alike. The world will call the wisdom of God ‘foolishness’ (1 Corinthians 1:21). Paul affirms that human wisdom – the wisdom of this age – is fleeting. Only what is true is eternal, and the wisdom of the age is not truth.

WHAT IS THE WISDOM OF OUR AGE? WHAT THINGS ARE WE TAUGHT BY SOCIETY THAT ARE NOT GODLY, LASTING TRUTHS?
The wisdom of God is the ‘mystery’ of God. That mystery is nothing less than God’s plan to provide salvation through Christ Jesus and includes the crucial fact that ‘we may approach God with freedom and confidence’ (Ephesians 3:12). While vague in the days of the Old Testament, the mystery became much clearer with the coming of Christ. The unbelievers did not understand. They could not comprehend God’s wisdom.

The mystery of salvation continues to unfold. There is a final piece to it. We are already saved from our lonely, wretched state as human beings and can enjoy fellowship with the Holy Spirit even as we walk this earth. We are already welcome to approach God boldly in prayer and worship. We already possess the hope of Heaven. But salvation will be complete when we share in the glory of God with, and through, Christ (Romans 8:17 and 18). That day is yet before us.

WHAT DOES SALVATION BRING TO US, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE? HOW CAN THIS IMPACT THE WAY WE LIVE?
The Holy Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God. This same Spirit is the companion and guide of every believer. Perhaps we have become too accustomed to the truth that the Spirit who dwells within is ‘not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God’ (1 Corinthians 2:12).

It is a spectacular thing to have been given God’s own Spirit. On our own we are flawed and feeble. But we possess the Spirit of God. Ponder the kind of power that comes with that.

The Spirit of God has been given to us so we might understand the wisdom and mystery of God that is ours to claim. Without the Spirit, we would be as the ‘rulers of this age’ (v8), who could not understand. The Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts and minds and teaches us. Most of us cannot access the Queen, yet we have daily access to the God of the Universe, who is our ‘private tutor’. Hallelujah!

This leads us to the glorious conclusion of this chapter: ‘We have the mind of Christ.’ Through the Holy Spirit, believers can actually think as God thinks. We can make appropriate ‘judgments about all things’ (v15) because we can discern what God would have us do. That is not to say we are never wrong! Sometimes we allow our own voices to crowd out God’s voice. But with the Holy Spirit living with us, we can know the mind of Christ.

Are we mindful of the thoughts of God? Do we allow his wisdom to control our lives?

FOR REFLECTION
Consider the questions in the first two paragraphs in relation to knowing the mind of Christ.

• Captain Reardon is Editor, Young Salvationist, USA National

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Prayer Request

1. Please intercede for Steven Chung's father who is now critical due to illness.

2. Please intercede for Dave & LIly Clarke for speedy recovery.

3. Please intercede for Jenny, Scott, Chris and Shiela.

4. Please intercede for Jasinta's family who on travel.

Announcements

1. Youth Fellowship
Date: 22/07/12 (Sun) Time: 7:30pm Venue: Corps Worship Hall
Worship: Jihhan, Bible Sharing: Soon Bee, Games: Lt Fiona.
All youth please take note.

2. Prayer Ministry
Date: 27/07/12 (Fri) Time: 8:15pm Venue: Corps Community Hall
Please share your prayer request and join us.

3. Corps Sport and Outing (Postponed from 21/07/12)
Date: 28/07/12 (Sat) Time: 3:00pm Venue: Penang Bowl
Event: Bowling. Please contact Sis Jasinta for more information.

4. Corps Council Meeting (Budget 2013)
Date: 29/07/12 (Sun) Time: 12:30pm Venue: Corps Worship Hall
All corps council members, please take note.

5. Open Day Coupon
Brother and Sister are encouraged to help to sell the open day coupons and help to find sponsors for the stall. Please return unsold coupons before 05/08/12. Please contact Capt Brenda for more information. Open Day will be held on 08/09/2012 time: 8:30am-2:00pm.

6. Senior Breakfast Fellowship
Date: 04/08/12 (Sat) Time: 8:00am Venue: Corps Pay Terubong.
Please contact Capt Tan for more information.

7. Corps Council Meeting (Budget 2013)
Date: 11/08/12 (Sat) Time: 11:00am Venue: Corps Community Hall
Volunteers and helper are needed, please contact Capt Tan for more information.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Turning

HOW many decisions have you made today? What to have for breakfast, for example, or what to wear – these are some of the decisions we face every day. Many are seemingly unimportant ones that have little consequence – although have you ever chosen the wrong pair of shoes to wear on a day out?

Yet we face some decisions that we know are very important. We weigh up the consequences and move forward with caution.

One Bible character who raises our awareness of decisions and their consequences is Jonah. The story of this reluctant prophet is often thought of as a children’s tale, but it has so much to challenge all of us.

‘Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher’ (2 Kings 14:25) was called by the Lord to ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it’ (Jonah 1:2 all quotations from New International Version). The Lord told Jonah that he was to do this because the wickedness of the city had come up before him.

Faced with this mission, Jonah made the decision to run ‘away from the Lord’ (1:3) and headed in the opposite direction – setting sail from Joppa to Tarshish.

Why did he do this? What was it that made Jonah decide he should not follow God, but instead go in the opposite direction? Was it fear – fear of going to this great, wicked city, fear of what the people of Nineveh might do to him upon hearing the message from God? Or was it because he did not want God to show mercy to the Ninevites?

We read later that this last reason actually was the cause of his flight, for Jonah knew that the Lord was ‘a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love’ (Jonah 4:2).

The consequences of Jonah’s decision unravelled in all manner of twists and turns. On the boat towards Tarshish, Jonah must have turned green when he had to admit his story and was thrown into the sea (1:9–15). Although rough for Jonah, this was a good decision by the sailors because when the sea turned calm they turned to the Lord (v16).

Finding himself inside the belly of a ‘huge fish’ for three days and nights, Jonah turned to God in prayer (2:1–10), crying in distress, remembering the holiness of God and committing himself to sacrificial giving. On deciding to ‘make good’, Jonah turned from disobedience to obedience and went God’s way (3:3).

The people of Nineveh heard the message and turned from their wicked ways (3:5–9). They donned sackcloth and fasted, calling ‘urgently on God’ (v8). God’s anger and wrath for the people of Nineveh turned into love and forgiveness when he saw ‘how they turned from their evil ways’ (3:10).

Jonah struggled with the outcome of his journey. He was not happy that God had forgiven the people of Nineveh. We leave Jonah in an uncomfortable place, where he is finding it hard to deal with the consequences of his actions (see chapter 4).

Jonah had learnt that God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8 and 9). He also learnt that we cannot escape God or flee from his Spirit or presence (Psalm 139:7).

Jonah’s journey echoes the truth that God’s plans are ‘to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (Jeremiah 29:11).

Every day, no matter what you do,
Will be the result of decisions made by you.
Like what time you get up in the morning, or go to bed at night,
Whether you travel to the left or turn to the right,
If you say yes, or if you say no,
Whatever you decide is the way you’ll go.
And reading the letters you get in the mail
Creates another decision trail.
Each daily decision, made in joy or strife,
Helps form the foundation of your life.

(Robert Saehloff)

I do not know what decisions you are facing in your life, but I know the God who is with you through every twist and turn. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 tells us: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.’

I pray that we, as God’s people, will be bold enough to obey, follow and trust as we walk through life with him.

by Captain Mann is corps officer at Greenock


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Prayer Request

1. Please intercede for Corps Sport and Outing 21/07/2012

2. Please intercede for Penang CFM High Praise 16/09/2012

3. Please intercede for Corps Family: Devi, Kaseh & family.

4. Please intercede for Corps Family: Freddy, Alice, Ailyn and Daniel Chong


Announcements

1. Change of Appointment
Effective Date: 13th Sept 2012
Major Kamala - Team Leader for Melaka & Batang Melaka Corps
Lieut Fiona - Asst. Corps Officer, Ipoh Corps & Asst Superintendence Ipoh Boy's Home
Captain Brenda - Penang Children's Home Superintendence
Captain Tan - Team Leader for Penang

2. Youth Worship
Date: 15/07/12 (Sun) Time: 7:30pm Venue: Corps Worship Hall
All youth please take note.

3. Cell Group
Date: 20/07/12 (Fri) Time: 8:15pm Venue: Please contact your leaders.
Please come and join us.

4. Corps Sport and Outing
Date: 21/07/12 (Sat) Time: 3:00pm Venue: Penang Bowl
Event: Bowling. Please contact Capt Tan for more information.

5. Corps Council Meeting (Budget 2013)
Date: 22/07/12 (Sun) Time: 12:30pm Venue: Corps Worship Hall
All corps council members, please take note.

6. Open Day Coupon
Brother and Sister are encouraged to help to sell the open day coupons. Please contact Capt Brenda for more information. Open Day will be held on 08/09/2012 time: 8:30am-2:00pm.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Prayer Request

1. Please intercede for SAFE Fellowship 14/07/12.

2. Please intercede for Dave Clarke who is in Hospital on bike accident.

3. Please intercede for Corps Family: Blessy, Yen Wong, Ah How.

4. Please intercede for Corps Family: Tian Seng, Lenny, Ah Seong & family, Ah Peng & family.

Announcements

1. Change of Appointment
Effective Date: 13th Sept 2012
Major Kamala - Team Leader for Melaka & Batang Melaka Corps
Lieut Fiona - Asst. Corps Officer, Ipoh Corps & Asst Superintendence Ipoh Boy's Home
Captain Brenda - Penang Children's Home Superintendence
Captain Tan - Team Leader for Penang

2. Youth Outing
Date: 08/07/12 (Sun) Time: 6:00pm Venue: Meet at Corps
All youth please take note.

3. Prayer Ministry
Date: 13/07/12 (Fri) Time: 8:15pm Venue: Community Hall
Please share your prayer concerns and join us.

4. SAFE Fellowship 2012
Date: 14/07/12 (Sat) Time: 7:00pm Venue: Community Hall
Guest Speaker: Dr Goh Eng Leong (Cardiologist & Physician) & Lieut. Colonel Bob Lee (Chief Secretary). Please contact Mrs Tan for pot bless dinner.

5. Corps Sport and Outing
Date: 21/07/12 (Sat) Time: 3:00pm Venue: Penang Bowl
Event: Bowling. Please contact Sis Jasinta for more information.

6. Corps Council Meeting (Budget 2013)
Date: 22/07/12 (Sun) Time: 12:30pm Venue: Corps Worship Hall
All corps council members, please take note.

7. Open Day Coupon
Brother and Sister are encouraged to help to sell the open day coupons. Please contact Capt Brenda for more information. Open Day will be held on 08/09/2012 time: 8:30am-2:00pm.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Confronting the powerful

‘WHERE two or three or more humans are together, there is power,’ writes Australian author and pastor Rowland Croucher. ‘Power is not evil in itself. But power is often abused when in the hands of selfish humans.’

Having previously considered some of the ways people are excluded and the cultural factors that influence attitudes, we now turn to this issue of power.

‘As followers of Jesus,’ says the Army’s International Social Justice Commission study Jesus And Justice, ‘our vision for a more just world is dependent on two primary “delivery systems”: social order and spiritual transformation.’

In Luke 19:1–10 we read that Jesus invited himself to the home of a tax collector named Zacchaeus, where he challenged this powerful man’s unjust behaviour. We noted last week that tax officials were considered undesirables because of their reputation for getting rich at the expense of others and for collaborating with the hated Romans.

Yet as a result of this meeting, Zacchaeus’s life was changed. Not only did he share his wealth and make restitution for his wrongdoing, he and his ‘house’ found salvation (v9). Jesus inviting himself to the house of a ‘sinner’ led to social revolution in a community and spiritual transformation for a number of people.

To consider: To what extent is the Church prepared to challenge unjust behaviour on the part of powerful individuals or institutions?

Jesus also confronted those who claimed religious power; in his day this was the Pharisees and scribes. They were the religious elite, enforcing not just the religious Law but the laws of the state as well. Jesus’ teaching, his popularity with the rank-and-file and his criticism of these leaders naturally led to conflict.

In Luke 6:1–11 we read that the Pharisees challenged Jesus and his disciples about picking grain and eating it on the Sabbath. Then, on another Sabbath, Jesus healed a man’s hand, deliberately provoking the religious powerbrokers. These were the leaders who would rather see rules obeyed than hungry people fed and the disadvantaged restored to fullness of life.

‘According to Jesus, some religious matters – such as justice, mercy and faith – are more important than others,’ says Jesus And Justice. ‘Religion that majors on minors is oppressive.’

To consider: Where should we look for our sources of religious authority? How can we protect ourselves from abuses of religious power? Who has the responsibility of keeping religious leaders accountable?

Then there is the issue of political power.

‘No political system is perfect,’ notes Jesus And Justice. ‘Many Islamic republics institute religious oppression. Some monarchies and dictatorships are intolerant to religious diversity. Marxism and communism remove social space for God and replace it with atheism. Even democratic societies are pressed with the evolving will of the people and their perpetually changing beliefs and preferred behaviours.’

In Mark 12:13–17 we see hypocritical leaders trying to trick Jesus into choosing between God and the State, to which he responded: ‘Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.’ Jesus’ followers are to fulfil their obligations to both God and State.

But where governments fail to act justly, neglecting the vulnerable members of society, how should God’s people respond?

Again we find our directive from Scripture, where we see Jesus confronting James and John about their request for prestige and position (Matthew 20:20–28). This episode demonstrates how far off the mark they and the rest of the disciples are about the nature of the coming Kingdom, and it gives Jesus the opportunity to remind them what true power really looks like. While others might be tyrannical rulers who ‘lord it over’ their subjects, Jesus said: ‘Not so with you’ (v26). True power is about serving, not being served.

To consider: How do we hold our political leaders accountable? How do we apply the ‘Not so with you’ principle to our own lives and that of our church communities?

Where there are two or three, or more, of us humans together, power will always be an issue. But, as Jesus And Justice reminds us, we have an example in Jesus who ‘lived right and righted wrongs’. As his followers we have the mandate and the means to do the same: ‘To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly’ with our God (Micah 6:8).

Major Ruthven is Editor-in-Chief and Publishing Secretary, THQ

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Announcements

1. Youth Special
Date: 01/07/12 (Sun) Time: 7:30pm Venue: Corps Community Hall
Praise & Worship: William Person-In-Charge: Captain Tan

2. THQ Finance Department Visit
Date: 02-03/07/12 (Mon-Tue). The THQ Finance team will visiting Penang to understand more about Penang TSA ministry.

3. Combined Cell Group
Date: 06/07/12 (Fri) Time: 8:15pm Venue: Community Hall
Please come and join us.

4. SAFE Fellowship 2012
Date: 14/07/12 (Sat) Time: 7:00pm Venue: Community Hall
Guest Speaker: Dr Goh Eng Leong (Cardiologist & Physician) & Lieut. Colonel Bob Lee (Chief Secretary). Please contact Mrs Tan for pot bless dinner.

5. Corps Sport and Outing
Date: 21/07/12 (Sat) Time: 3:00pm Venue: Penang Bowl
Event: Bowling. Please contact Sis Jasinta for more information.

6. Corps Council Meeting (Budget 2013)
Date: 22/07/12 (Sun) Time: 12:30pm Venue: Corps Worship Hall
All corps council members, please take note.

7. Open Day Coupon
Brother and Sister are encouraged to help to sell the open day coupons. Please contact Capt Brenda for more information. Open Day will be held on 08/09/2012 time: 8:30am-2:00pm.

Prayer Request

1. Pray for SAFE Fellowship on 14/07/2012.

2. Pray for our Youth Council 16/09/2012 at Ipoh

3. Pray for Corps Family: Tong Sing, Iris & Yoke Peng

4. Pray for Corps Family: Soon Bee & Wei Lin