Announcement

Strategic Mission Plan (2015-2018) 
In the name of JESUS we will:
- Make Disciples
- Pursue Holiness of Life
- Engage in Mission
- Promote Justice

Momentum 2018: Make Disciples
Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ

Real-Life Discipleship
Date: 20th Jan 2018 (Sat)
Time: 9:30am
Venue: Community Hall
Facilitator: Bro Low Kar Leong
Details: Local Officers & Ministry Leaders, kindly take note

Installation of Territorial Leaders
Colonel Rodney Walters & Colonel Wendy Walters
Date: Sunday, 28th Jan 2018 Time: 3:00pm
Venue: Singapore Central Corps

EAT, PRAY, STAY TOGETHER

Not so long ago, the various members of our family had different schedules, and as a result, we were seldom able to eat together. I couldn’t help feeling that our family was drifting apart—especially since visiting an Italian friend who taught me what a joy “breaking bread” together can be.

A meal in an Italian home is an event. It’s not about grabbing a quick bite on the run; rather, it’s a time to swap stories, to chat, to debate, to share hopes and wishes. Then, just when you think the meal is finished, another delicious dish is set in front of you. Before you know it, two hours have gone by, and maybe many more. No need for any other evening entertainment; the meal is an event in itself.

We may not often have the opportunity to indulge in an Italian-style feast, but even in our busy lives, surely we can find a way to share a meal. There is a lot of research that supports the benefits of families eating together.

The opportunity to talk over a meal strengthens bonds, creating warmth, security, and a sense of belonging. A home-cooked meal is likely to be more nutritious and cheaper than fast food. Younger members of the household learn manners—asking to pass food, not putting elbows on the table, and eating slowly all contribute to the pleasant experience. Language skills are reinforced as we listen and tell stories around the table. Eating together also increases the whole household’s awareness of food preparation—another great way of giving the children a good start in life.

No matter the composition of your household—even if you’re alone—taking time to stop and enjoy your food is going to be good for your digestion and emotional well-being.Meals are also a great time to pray for our specific needs and show appreciation to God for what He’s done.

My visit to Italy has inspired me to commit to calling our family together at mealtimes as often as possible. What we get is a lot more than just the food. We receive bonds of love, joy, and togetherness that will last.

2018 Jan - Senior Citizen Breakfast

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SALTED CUCUMBERS

A friend of mine was showing me the large number of old cucumbers she was planning to preserve in salt.

“Are old cucumbers all right to eat?” I asked.

“These are quite dried out, but they’ll be great to pickle!” she replied knowledgeably. For my busy friend, having pickled cucumbers to supplement on-the-go meals is convenient and appreciated.

The thought of these dried cucumbers being transformed into something delicious and healthy reminded me of a story I heard about kimchi.

Although kimchi has always existed in Korea, some trace its massive popularity as a food staple to the shortages of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). New varieties of kimchi were developed by pickling bits of vegetables that weren’t appealing as they were or that were on the verge of rotting with lots of spices in order to make them edible and preserve them. I marvel that one of my favorite foods was developed during a time when there wasn’t enough to eat!

This brings to mind a situation in a rural area of North America where rattlesnakes were making an unwanted appearance. The villagers were scared by the sudden increase in the snake population, and some people even began to move away. Other more enterprising citizens began using the rattlesnakes’ leather skins to manufacture bags and belts. It turned out that the diamondback rattlesnake, which had previously been such a pest, ended up contributing greatly to the development of that area’s economy.

And so it often is that in the midst of situations that appear to be defeats, God can use that very thing to bring something better. We are surrounded daily by problems and unwelcome occurrences. However, God always has a plan. No matter how horrible a situation may appear, we have a God who will never fail us. When things don’t go as planned and when dreams are torn, He may very well be preparing something better.

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
—Romans 8:28 NIV

Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936)

The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a wilderness.
—Henry Havelock Ellis (1859–1939)

THE BREAD OF LIFE

“I am the bread of life” is one of the seven “I Am” statements of Jesus. …
Bread is considered a staple food—i.e., a basic dietary item. … Bread is such a basic food item that it becomes synonymous for food in general. We even use the phrase “breaking bread together” to indicate the sharing of a meal with someone.

Bread also plays an integral part of the Jewish Passover meal. The Jews were to eat unleavened bread during the Passover feast and then for seven days following as a celebration of the exodus from Egypt. Finally, when the Jews were wandering in the desert for 40 years, God rained down “bread from heaven” to sustain the nation.

All of this plays into the scene being described in John 6. Jesus was trying to get away from the crowds to no avail. He had crossed the Sea of Galilee, and the crowd followed Him. After some time, Jesus inquires of Philip how they’re going to feed the crowd. Philip’s answer displays his “little faith” when he says they don’t have enough money to give each of them the smallest morsel of food. Finally, Andrew brings to Jesus a small boy who had five small loaves of bread and two fish. With that small amount, Jesus miraculously feeds the throng with lots of food to spare.

Afterward, Jesus and His disciples cross back to the other side of Galilee. When the crowd sees that Jesus has left, they follow Him again. … He accuses the crowd of ignoring His miraculous signs and only following Him for the “free meal.” Jesus tells them in John 6:27, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” In other words, they were so enthralled with the food, they were missing out on the fact that their Messiah had come. So the Jews ask Jesus for a sign that He was sent from God. … They tell Jesus that God gave them manna during the desert wandering. Jesus responds by telling them that they need to ask for the true bread from heaven that gives life. When they ask Jesus for this bread, Jesus startles them by saying, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

This is a phenomenal statement! First, by equating Himself with bread, Jesus is saying He is essential for life. Second, the life Jesus is referring to is not physical life but eternal life. … He is contrasting what He brings as their Messiah with the bread He miraculously created the day before. That was physical bread that perishes. He is spiritual bread that brings eternal life. …

The key is found in another statement Jesus made, back during His Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:6, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” When Jesus says those who come to Him will never hunger and those who believe in Him will never thirst, He is saying He will satisfy our hunger and thirst to be made righteous in the sight of God. …

The Bible says God has placed [the desire for] eternity in our hearts. The Bible also tells us that there is nothing we can do to earn our way to heaven because we’ve all sinned and the only thing our sin earns us is death. There is no one who is righteous in himself. … When Christ died on the cross, He took the sins of mankind upon Himself and made atonement for them. When we place our faith in Him, our sins are imputed to Jesus and His righteousness is imputed to us. Jesus satisfies our hunger and thirst for righteousness. He is our Bread of Life.

Christ compares the needs of men to hungering and thirsting. Now hungering is no sham. Those who have ever felt it know what a real need it indicates and what bitter pangs it brings. Thirst, also, is not a sentimental matter; it is a trial, indeed. What pain can be worse beneath the skies than thirst?

The heart, also, has its hunger, for almost unknown to itself it cries, “O that someone loved me and that I could love someone whose love would fill my nature to the brim.” Our hearts are gluttons for love. They hunt here and there, and are bitterly disappointed. But when they hear that Jesus Christ loved them before the world was, and died for them, their roving affections find rest. The love of Jesus casts out all hankering for other loves and fills the soul! He becomes the Bridegroom of our heart, our best Beloved, and we bid the more common things depart.—Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892), adapted

Be Content With Food And Clothing?

1 TIMOTHY 6:8 NKJ 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

The word translated "content" here does not mean to accept and be satisfied with lack, and give up on any effort to improve our situation. It means "to be strong enough and have enough to help others."

If all we have is food and clothing we should not see ourselves as poor, for God is our Father and source of supply. We have His promise to take care of us. That gives us the sufficiency to look outward and help others.

We should be thankful if all we have is food and clothing. But we should not be lazy and accept lack as being God's ideal either.

We cannot be satisfied when others still have unmet needs. Yet to truly help others as we should, we must have more than we need. So accepting poverty is a selfish act, not a loving act.

It is wrong to love money. But it is not wrong to have money. The more money we have, the more people we can help.

If being wealthy is evil, then God would be the most evil one of all.

The Holy Spirit Is Your Helper 2

JOHN 15:26 NKJ 26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

Never forget that the Holy Spirit's desire and purpose is to help you -- not to hinder you.

Also, remember that the Holy Spirit is a person, and should be treated with the utmost respect.

Here are some ways the Holy Spirit desires to help you, and will help you when you allow Him to.

Teaches Us All Things

JOHN 14:26 NKJ 26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things . . . .

Tells Us Things To Come

JOHN 16:13 NKJ 13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, . . . He will tell you things to come.

Abides With Us

We are not facing life all alone -- as an orphan would. The Holy Spirit is with us continually -- living with us. When we need help He is never far away, but always right with us, waiting for us to call on Him for His help.

Empowers Us To Be Witnesses

ACTS 1:8 NKJ 8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Brings Life And Healing To Us

ROMANS 8:11 NKJ 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Encourages Us

ROMANS 8:16 NKJ 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

2 CORINTHIANS 13:14 NKJ 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

The Holy Spirit Is Your Helper

JOHN 15:26 NKJ 26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

The Holy Spirit's desire and purpose is to help you -- not to hinder you.

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity of God. It is difficult for humans to understand how there can be only one God, as the Scriptures teach, yet He can reveal Himself as three persons. So do not let it be an obstacle for you.

The Holy Spirit is a person, not just a force. He should be treated with the utmost respect and shown the utmost gratitude.

Following are a few of the ways the Holy Spirit desires to help you, and will help you if you allow Him to.

In Prayer

ROMANS 8:26 NKJ 26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

One weakness of humans, compared to God, is in our limited knowledge. We do not even know what is happening on the other side of a wall, let alone the other side of the country. We also do not know what people are planning to do, but the Holy Spirit knows everything. And He will help us to pray accurately and effectively.

One way the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer is by giving us utterance in a language for prayer which we have never learned. Thus we can bypass our minds with their doubt and lack of understanding of what is best, and pray according to the perfect will of God.

Guides Us

The Holy Spirit will, if allowed, guide you in every area of life; from the words you should speak, to the spouse you should marry, to the investments you should make.

JOHN 16:13 NKJ 13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you . . .

Into All Truth

JOHN 16:12-13 NKJ 12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

"Into all truth" in verse thirteen is translated "into the full truth" or "to the complete truth" in other Bible translations.

At the very end of His earthly ministry, Jesus told His disciples there were many things He still needed to teach them. Then Jesus told them the Holy Spirit would guide them into a full and complete understanding of the truth after He left.

It took me a long time to understand this. But I finally realized that because Jesus ministered under the Old Covenant, He was not able to communicate everything we need to know about the New Covenant during His earthly ministry. Only after His death and resurrection, which brought in the New Covenant, was the Lord able, through the Holy Spirit, to explain all He had accomplished for us.

So if we believe Jesus, we must realize it is impossible to be led into all truth by reading and studying only the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

This is not to say the four Gospels are not truth, for they are. They are very important for they reveal Jesus to us. But they do not, and cannot, give us the complete and full picture of truth. For Jesus plainly said the Holy Spirit would guide His disciples into all truth only after Jesus left them -- and the four Gospels primarily cover the earthly ministry of Jesus.

So it is only in the Letters (also called Epistles) to the Church (Romans through Revelation) that we finally get the complete picture of the New Covenant and understand what Jesus has accomplished.

Jesus did not give us the full, complete truth during His earthly ministry. Without the revelation of what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection, we don't have the whole picture. This information was only given to us after Jesus' resurrection, and is found only in the Letters written to the Church.

The Letters to the Church in the New Testament are also the words of Jesus, speaking to us from Heaven through the Holy Spirit, and written down by His apostles.

It is right for us to honor the words of Jesus recorded in the four Gospels, but it is a mistake to think we should place them on a higher level than the revelation Jesus gave His church after His resurrection.

What we have in the Epistles are not just the words of men, but the Words of God, written down by the Apostles of Jesus. This is where we must look to be led "into all truth" which Jesus promised His disciples would be revealed after He left them and sent the Holy Spirit.

If you are going to understand truth fully, you need divine illumination. You need help from God. Human effort and study is not enough. You need a "Guide" to lead you into all truth.

Announcement

Strategic Mission Plan (2015-2018) 
In the name of JESUS we will:
- Make Disciples
- Pursue Holiness of Life
- Engage in Mission
- Promote Justice

Momentum 2018: Make Disciples

Senior Citizen Fellowship
Date: 13 Jan 2018 (Sat)
Venue: TBA
Time: 8:30am

Corp's Programme Resume 2018
Details:
Cell Group (1st & 3rd Week)
Tamil Cell Group (Every Thursday)
Junior Soldier Class (Saturday)
Praise K.I.D.S (Sunday)
Youth Fellowship (Sunday)

2018 - Covenant Sunday

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How Faith Works

Faith is what you believe. (In the Bible, faith is the noun form and believe is the verb form of the same word.)

Faith (a belief) is always a decision, based on some evidence, resulting in some action.

Faith in God is a choice to believe what God says is true. It is accepting God's Word as evidence worthy of acting upon.

Faith in God and His Word operates on the same principles as faith in anything else. There are no special rules. It is all a matter of what you believe.

All humans operate on a belief system.

As we go through life we are constantly being presented with information which is evidence that we must evaluate and judge. Whenever we choose to accept the evidence presented to us as sufficient to accept as truth, then that belief is added to our belief system.

Unless and until we are presented with new evidence that causes us to decide to believe differently about a subject, we keep the same belief.

Then as we go through life, we always act (often sub- consciously) on the basis of our belief system. Sometimes we face situations in life where there is not time to think, and immediate action is required. These actions are always governed by the beliefs we have already determined (which form our belief system).

The Bible is major evidence to change your beliefs. It is a message from God, the Creator, who knows how everything works.

As we receive new evidence from the Bible, it may conflict with some of our previous beliefs. But we know that God cannot lie, and whatever He says is truth and will happen.

MARK 11:22-24 BBE 22 And Jesus, answering, said to them, Have God's faith. 23 Truly I say to you, Whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and be put into the sea; and has no doubt in his heart, but has faith that what he says will come about, he will have his desire. 24 For this reason I say to you, Whatever you make a request for in prayer, have faith that it has been given to you, and you will have it.

Mark 11:22 literally says "Have God faith." Jesus was teaching us how to use our faith the same way God does. "God faith" speaks the desired result and never allows anything to change that statement. (Mark 11:23) We are God's children, made in His image and likeness, and He is training us how things work in His creation. Once God makes a statement, He never changes it. There are words God spoke thousands of years ago, which are not yet fully manifest to us in time. But God never chooses to say anything different. God believes what He said will come to pass!

"Doubt" in Mark 11:23 does not mean "have questions." It means a judgment (decision) that completely separates. So it would mean accepting some new evidence presented as sufficient to reverse your previous decision and statement of faith.

Receiving new evidence and deciding whether it is sufficient to change our belief is a never-ending cycle. We can be in faith one minute, and in un-faith (unbelief) the next minute -- if we make a new decision based on the evidence being presented to us. The disciples had faith in John 2:11 (close to the beginning of Jesus' ministry), and did not in Mark 16:14 (at the end of Jesus' earthly ministry).

Fear is the opposite of Bible hope. Bible hope is a positive expectation based on and supported by a belief in God's Word. Fear is a negative expectation based on and supported by a belief in something bad. Both involve the imagination, the seeing part of our thinking, the ability to visualize something before it happens, or after it happens.

Faith in God produces Bible hope – expecting good to happen. Faith in bad things produces fear – expecting bad to happen. Faith is the support, the foundation, the underlying thing under both hope and fear. You cannot have hope (which is a positive vision) without faith (which is a choice to believe) in something. You cannot have fear (which is a negative vision) without faith (which is a choice to believe) in something bad.

It is your belief that supports, undergirds, and provides the basis for your hope or fear. The belief was a choice you made. Then it became part of your belief system. That provides the basis for your hopes or your fears.

Faith is released and put into action by speaking what you believe with your mouth.

The primary action of faith toward God is speaking in agreement with God's Word. And then we stand in that position of faith, regardless of feelings or circumstances, no matter how long it takes.

What You Say Is What You Get

MARK 11:23 NKJ 23 "For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says.

Jesus said that you will have whatever you say -- dependent on believing and not doubting. Think of that. What you say determines what you get in life. It did for the children of Israel. And the Bible says the things which happened to them are lessons for us.

NUMBERS 14:28 NKJ 28 "Say to them, As I live,' says the Lord,just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:

PROVERBS 6:2 NKJ 2 you are snared by the words of your own mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth.

Words can get you in trouble. And words can deliver you (see Revelation 12:11 and Romans 10:10). Words control your destiny.

All of us face trouble in life and it can sometimes be tempting to wonder why God does not help us sooner and in greater measure. While there is much that we don't understand, we must, on the basis of what Jesus said, realize we are responsible for what happens because of the words we have spoken.

A STRAY MUSHROOM

Chopping vegetables for dinner, I twice caught a stray mushroom before it rolled from the cutting board off the counter.
You’re so good to me, God! I thought.
Somewhere else in my mind, I was thinking about the apartment rental application I had put in that morning. Please be good to me, and let them accept my application.
—As if there are times when God isn’t good.
My thoughts went to a YouTube performance I’d seen a few weeks earlier of the Newsboys singing “Blessed Be Your Name.”
Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful,
Where Your streams of abundance flow,
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place,
Though I walk through the wilderness,
Blessed be Your name.

God is good and fair in happy times and hard times. His goodness shows both in what He gives and what He withholds, what He allows and what He denies. This is one of those “a lot in one” concepts. With this attitude, you can’t help but also experience increased joy, faith, peace, and gratitude.

I hope that reflecting on this familiar truth and the message of this song will help it to go a little deeper into my heart—more than a convicting phrase or a moving song that comes to mind now and then, but part of who I am.

King David practiced this: “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

James understood it: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (God is not given to being moody when it comes to answering prayer or acting on my behalf.)

Job immortalized it for faith generations to come: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
I got the mushroom.

I might get the apartment. Or not.
Either way, God is good.

DAILY NEEDS

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, only one of the things He told them to ask for was a physical need—“Give us this day our daily bread.” All the rest of the prayer is praise to God or requests for spiritual gifts or blessings so that we can better please and serve Him. His including a request for material supply recognizes that we live in the natural world and that God wants to supply our physical needs. But it goes deeper than that.

When the Samaritan woman met Jesus at Jacob’s well, He told her that physical sustenance wasn’t enough. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” Jesus is the bread and water of life, and His presence in our lives is even more important than our physical food and water.

Just as food and water are needed every day to sustain life, so we also need a daily supply of spiritual strength. Just as God expects us to work hard to procure our daily food, He expects us to put effort into procuring our spiritual food, by reading His Word and spending time with Him in prayer, reflection, and meditation.

Thankfully, God wants to give us what we need—and most importantly, He wants to give us Himself. God wants everyone to eat His spiritual food. Going back to the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus was teaching His disciples to not only pray for supply of their daily needs, but also for His Spirit—“the living bread that came down from heaven”—to be present in their lives each day.

NEW YEAR CHOICES

I’m quite excited about my New Year’s resolution, and I think it’s going to work. No, I know it’s going to work. It’s got to, because I see now that my future hinges on it. “Think small.”

That may seem like a contradiction of the usual New Year refrain—“Think big”—but actually, it complements it. I hit on “Think small” after a friend pointed me to “The Formula,” an online article by Jim Rohn. Here are a few excerpts that sum up the “think small” strategy:

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn’t result in an instant and measurable impact.

Failure’s most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don’t seem to make any difference. Since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices, and making the wrong choices.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It’s a few simple disciplines practiced every day. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results.

What better way to further our major life goals than by determining to make better “small” choices, what better time to start than the New Year, and who better to help us make and stick to those choices than the One who made us and knows exactly what we need! With God all things are possible. “Think small.”

Choose
Choose to love, rather than hate.
Choose to smile, rather than frown.
Choose to build, rather than destroy.
Choose to preserve, rather than quit.
Choose to praise, rather than gossip.
Choose to heal, rather than wound.
Choose to give, rather than grasp.
Choose to act, rather than delay.
Choose to forgive, rather than curse.
Choose to pray, rather than despair.
—Author unknown

—

Romans 8:7 ESV / For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

1 Kings 18:21 ESV / And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

Deuteronomy 30:15 ESV / “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.

HOLDING ON

As a young child, I would lie in bed at my grandparents’ house, listening to the sounds of the television downstairs and looking at the pictures on the wall. One was a picture of a woman with wavy reddish hair in a nightdress clinging to a stone cross in the middle of the raging sea. Pieces of a boat drifted around her and the waves threatened to drag her back into the water, but her eyes were fixed on the cross and she held on with all her might.

At the time, I really didn’t understand the meaning behind the picture, and I remember thinking about it as I drifted off to sleep. I wondered why the woman was hanging so tightly to the cross and why she didn’t let go and just grab one of the pieces of wood floating around her. Holding on looked very difficult.

As years passed and I encountered some of my own crises of faith, the picture began to have more meaning for me. During those times, I tried holding on to various other things that did all right at keeping me afloat, but my life had no direction or purpose. I realized that holding on to God—especially when it’s hard to do—is really the most important thing.

There’s another deeper meaning to that picture that struck me when I saw it again years later: Most of the painting was dark, with the exception of one ray of light that shone directly on the cross. I realized that was another reason why the woman was holding on to the cross rather than grabbing a piece of wood and floating away. She could have drifted around in the darkness, but she wanted to stay in the light.

As we enter the new year and face a world filled with unknown troubles, it can be quite frightening. We have only one solid place in the middle of the storm, and one light in the darkness. Disaster, danger, and death may be all around, but God is my light and my salvation. He is the strength of my life and will help me hold on.

—

Romans 10:17 ESV / So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Matthew 21:22 ESV / And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Hebrews 11:6 ESV / And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

ON THE RIVER’S EDGE

As the children of Israel were preparing to cross the Jordan River, Joshua sent the ark of the covenant ahead. He instructed the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before.”

“Never been this way before”—I often feel that way! I run into a situation or a dilemma that’s all new to me, and I have no idea how to tackle it. Should I go or stay? Should I take this offer or turn it down?

Some decisions are easy to make. Sometimes the path ahead seems pretty straightforward, even if you’ve never taken it before. Other times, it can feel like there are potential dangers and pitfalls all around. Looking ahead can be exciting, but it can also be a little frightening because of the many unknowns.

As I write this, I’m facing a dilemma. I’ve been offered a job that seems pretty appealing. It’s work that I’d enjoy and the pay is good. But it would mean a major move to another city—when it feels like we’ve only just gotten settled where we are. It would mean putting other goals on hold and moving away from relatives and new friends. It’s exciting, in a way, but it’s also challenging, because I don’t know how things are going to turn out.

The children of Israel didn’t know how things were going to play out for them either. They knew there was a promised land ahead, but there was also the River Jordan blocking their way.

The Israelites hadn’t traveled that way before. That’s why they had to follow the ark, which represented God’s presence and His promises. By following the ark—by following God—they could walk confidently, knowing that they were headed in the right direction.

Sometimes, the way God leads doesn’t seem to make sense. Sometimes it can look downright crazy, like when He instructed Joshua to tell the priests who carried the ark of the covenant to “take a few steps into the river and stop there.”

I imagine some of the people were more than a little anxious as they approached the flooded riverbanks. But we’re told that “as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away.” The priests stood in the middle of the dry riverbed while all the Israelites walked safely across.

I think this story offers a pretty awesome formula for making decisions. When you’re facing tough choices, when you “haven’t been this way before” and you’re dealing with brand-new challenges or seeming impossibilities, keep your eyes on Jesus. Only God knows what’s ahead, so it’s a good idea to follow His lead.

God cares about your problems and concerns and dilemmas just as much as He cared about His people stuck at the banks of the Jordan River. The Bible promises, “The Lord is kind, and as soon as he hears your cries for help, he will come … and he will guide you. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice saying, ‘This is the road! Now follow it.’”

God’s Word contains solid promises that you can stand on and claim in prayer whenever you’re desperate for His answers and direction in your life. Then as you keep your eyes on Jesus and follow His lead, you’ll be able to march confidently into the future God has in store for you.

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Joshua 3:8 (NIV) Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”

Joshua 3:15-16 (NIV) Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

Isaiah 30:19-21 (NIV) People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

2017 - Watch Night Service and New Year Eve

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Announcement

Watch Night Service
Date:31 Dec 2017 (Sunday)
Time: 7pm - 12am
Details: BBQ Dinner, Games, Movie, Reflection Fellowship and etc.
All are welcome.

Covenant Sunday
Date: 7 July 2017 (Sunday)
Venue: Worship Hall
Time: 10:30am
Theme: Momentum 2018 - Make Disciples Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18

Wishing Each and Everyone of you a blessed New Year 2018