Sunday Service 31st Jan 2010

This Sunday, Brother Malcolm shared on Titus chapter one.

Pattern of governance and behaviour

Under this title he has the “prologue” which has two sub title “mission” Tit 1:1, and God’s promise Tit 1:2-4

According to Brother Malcolm even just in the prologue Paul had covered many things. Example, by grace we have been saved not by our work. Grace ad peace from God, unlike peace from any other person or source.

Elders & Overseers

Under this title is sub titles, “elder” Gen 50:7, Num 11:16, Ex18:13-26, 24:9, Deut 19:12, Josh 20:4, Tit 1:4. :Overseer” Tit 1:7, “Vices” Tit 1:6-7, “Build virtue” Tit 1:8-9

Handling of false teaching Act 15:1

Under this title are sub titles. “Teach” 2Tim3:16, Tit1:1, Mk 12:34, “Rebuke” 2Tim 3:16, 4:2-5, Tit 1:13, 2:15, “Correct” Mk 5:23, 8:15-21, 2Tim 3:16, “Train”, 2Tim 3:16

Wayfaring Stranger

"The Wayfaring Stranger," also known as "Poor Wayfaring Stranger," is a traditional folk song of unknown origin. There are many and varied opinions as to its origin. Some of the theories include Appalachian Folk, Old Irish, and Catskills Folk. One theory is that it originates from the Negro Spirituals and there was a deliberate concealment of the songs origins. The lyrics of negro spirituals were tightly linked with the lives of their authors: slaves. While work songs dealt only with their daily life, spirituals were inspired by the message of Jesus Christ and his Good News (Gospel) of the Bible, "You can be saved". They are different from hymns and psalms, because they were a way of sharing the hard condition of being a slave.

Many slaves in town and in plantations tried to run to a "free country", that they called "my home" or "Sweet Canaan, the Promised Land". This country was on the Northern side of Ohio River, that they called "Jordan". Some negro spirituals refer to the Underground Railroad, an organization for helping slaves to run away.

Amazing Faith-Haiti Quake

Praise God!

Psalm 46:2

Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea

Are You a Fake?

The following is a story I believe many can identify with.

Luke 6:46
And why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord," and do not do what I say?

Some people are excellent "fakes." Publicly, they may do an abundance of "Christian deeds" and use the right Christian cliches. But privately, their lives are charades. They aren't listening to God. Their lives are mockeries.
A young man who had just graduated from law school set up an office, proudly displaying his shingle out front. On his first day at work, as he sat at his desk with his door open, he was wondering how he would get his first client. Then he heard footsteps coming down the long corridor toward his office.
Not wanting this potential client to think that he would be the first, the young lawyer quickly picked up the telephone and began to talk loudly to a make-believe caller. "Oh, yes sir!" he exclaimed into the phone. "I'm very experienced in corporate law....Courtroom experience? Why, yes, I've had several cases."
The sounds of footsteps drew closer to his open door.
"I have broad experience in almost every category of legal work," he continued, loud enough for his impending visitor to hear.
Finally, with the steps right at his door, he replied, "Expensive? Oh, no sir, I'm very reasonable. I'm told my rates are among the lowest in town."
The young lawyer then excused himself from his "conversation" and covered the phone in order to respond to the prospective client who was now standing in the doorway. With his most confident voice, he said, "Yes, sir, may I help you?"
"Well, yes you can," the man said with a smirk. "I'm the telephone repairman, and I've come to hook up your phone!"
We sometimes fake the Christian life in the same way. We say we honor God, but we don't obey Him day to day. Preoccupied with self and wanting our own ways, we ignore God and pretend to be spiritual. Instead of having Christ's character imprinted on our lives, we go our own ways, and our Christianity becomes a forgery.
Prayer: That the Holy Spirit will reveal how you can walk with God moment by moment, in an authentic manner.
Source:Christianity.com

Sunday Service 24th Jan 2010

Baptism Certificate

Before the sharing Brother Howe Tung and Brother King Swee gave away baptism certificates as well as a Bible each to the six members who were baptised the previous week. Praise the Lord!


Brother Malcolm share on the Boom of Titus.

Patterns of practical behaviour

Titus in Greek means, the honourable one. However, people in the island of Crete were known for their vice. Titus 1:1 called them liars and gluttons.

Titus the honourable, read Galatians 2:1&3, 15-16, Titus 1:4

His relationship with Paul Titus 1:4, 2Corinthian 2:13

The Book established godly behaviours that believers must follow to live godly live.

Governance and Godly behaviours

The Book of Titus talked about governance and godly behaviours, Titus 1:1, 2:12

We are to live godly lives and say no to ungodliness. Example, in what we do in our lives like daily living or in our work and business.

After people learnt about the good and godly things they must do, they are to teach the others. Like we attend Church services, those sermons we learnt are to be used to teach others and not stopping at ourselves.

China's Ethnic People

Interesting to see so many ethnic people in China. Some of the people look like our natives! I got this email from a friend and I made into a slide. Enjoy it!

Precious Fruit

Recently Pastor Isaac Yim preached in our Church on Galatian 5, here is a related article.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. —Galatians 5:22-23

How much would you be willing to pay for a piece of fruit? In Japan, someone paid more than $6,000 for one Densuke watermelon. Grown only on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, this beautiful dark-green sphere looks like a bowling ball. The nearly 18-pound watermelon was one of only a few thousand available that year. The fruit’s rarity brought an astronomical price on the market.
Christians have fruit that is far more precious than the Densuke watermelon. It’s called the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). Each “fruit” is a different aspect of Christlikeness. In the Gospels, we see how Christ exemplified these virtues. Now He wants to produce them in our hearts—in what we say, how we think, and how we respond to life (John 15:1-4).
A rare and delicious fruit may bring a premium price in the marketplace, but Christlike character is of far greater worth. As we confess all known sin and yield to God’s indwelling Spirit, our lives will be transformed to the likeness of Christ (1 John 1:9; Eph. 5:18). This spiritual fruit will fill our lives with joy, bless those around us, and last into eternity. — Dennis Fisher
Think not alone of outward form;
Its beauty will depart;
But cultivate the Spirit’s fruits
That grow within the heart. —D. De Haan
Source: Dailybread

God Told Me...Really?

A self explanatory article. Please read.

Dr. Ray Pritchard
Author, Speaker, President of Keep Believing Ministries

A friend alerted me to an article by R. T. Kendall called 'God Told Me' . . . Really? that says something I've thought for a long time but have never been able to put into words. Kendall is talking about tendency of evangelicals in general (and charismatics in particular) to say "God told me" when they think they have received some sort of message from the Lord.
There are many reasons why this is a bad idea, not the least of which being that just because you think you have a message from the Lord doesn't mean it's anything other than your own idea. Now that idea (or thought or insight) might in itself be true and good. Or it might be a useful consideration. But that's not the same thing as "Thus saith the Lord."
Kendall wades right into the middle of this and exposes what lies at the heart of it all:
How do we misuse God's name when we claim He told us something? With our intent. Most often we mention Him for one reason: to elevate our own credibility. It is not His name we are thinking of, it is our reputation. Adding the weight of God's name to our words gives us authority and respectability. But the truth is, we're not thinking of God's name and glory when we do this—we're thinking of our own.
Ouch! Talk about hitting the nail on the head.
Kendall offers this wise advice:
Likewise, if I truly have a word from the Lord, I can say it without mentioning His holy name. It will speak for itself. And if people don't recognize my authenticity because I don't include God's name, that is not my problem.
That sounds exactly right to me, and it deserves careful consideration because R. T. Kendall writes from a more charismatic viewpoint regarding spiritual gifts.
I don't offer this to stir up any controversy or to hurt anyone's feelings. I just think we throw around God's name too casually these days, and we attach his name to our own statements in order to get people to listen to us. You don't have to say "the Lord told me." If the Lord really did tell you, the rest of us can probably figure it out.
Let's all be careful how we use the Lord's name lest we be guilty of taking his name in vain and violating the Third Commandment.
And I thank R. T. Kendall for having the courage to write as he did.

Sunday Service 17th Jan 2010

Our Church had the previlege to have Pastor Isaac Yim from Baptist Convention. He has been a pastor for 41 years, and his last service was the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Petaling Jaya. Now he is a pastor to the pastors in countries like China, India, Tibet, Cambodia.

His sermon is on Galatians 5:16-25 in partcular on Self control.

The war between the fresh and spirit is active and real. We can be victorious when we crucify the fresh and walk daily in the spirit. Self control is to not live in bondage to the desires, passion and appetite of the fresh.

Self control life

1.A self controlled life has positive goals 1 Cor 9:24
2.A self controlled life involves disciplines 1 Cor 9:25
3.A self controlled lfe demands focus 1 Cor 9: 25-26
4.A self controlled life includes whole person, mind, body, and emotion 1 Cor 9:27

Self control is when the Spirit controls us.

Metro Tabernacle Church

The burning of Metro Tabernacle Church was a blessing, Praise God! God works in misterous ways. Read this testimony I received from a friend in K.L

Very encouraging testimonies.
Anyway, the reason for writing is to encourage each and everyone of us. My colleague, Celia Tham is a member of the Metro Tabernacle church. This morning (my 1st day back at work) she shared with me the wonderful testimonies that has happened since the burning of their church. And I would like to share the same with you all too.

1) The night before the church was burned their Pastor was at the church past 11pm because he wanted to check his emails. He is a very hardworking person and has a habit of wanting to complete his work as much as possible. But he is also very sensitive to the Holy Spirit. When he got to the church premise and was about to swipe the card to open the door, he had a terrible stomachache that he had never had before. He knew that the Lord was telling him to go back home and he obeyed and left the church premise. It was past midnight that the church was torched. If he had not obeyed he would have been burned alive and would not be able to live to tell this wonderful testimony. God still has work for him to do on earth. His time was not up yet.
2) The MTC had trouble moving to the new premises in Batu Caves . They had been waiting for approval from the Local Authorities and is still pending. Then they were facing financial difficulties as they needed to buy new furniture for the new premise. They had been raising funds on their own to relocate to Batu Caves but had been stuck due to approval permits and raising more $ to buy new furniture and equipment. So when the church was burned it was all the old stuff that they had been wanting to get rid off! And our Govt compensated them RM500K and CIMB and many other donations started to pour in. From an adversity it turned into a blessing! Our God truly provides!
3) Celia has been rejoicing in the office and shared with my MD. Today at our Management meeting, the MD said I had never seen anyone so full of joy when the church got burned down but instead she said it was a blessing.
4) Celia said the church leaders and members shook hands with Najib and they released forgiveness for whatever that has happened in the past. She said Najib felt very welcomed at the church. Hishamuddin commented that during his visit he has never seen so many smiling faces when their church had just been burned down. To God be the glory!
5) They also requested for the Batu Caves new church premise to be turned into a place of worship and not a commercial zone. The Selangor Govt is looking into it and the MB, Khalid gave his assurance that he will look into it personally.
6) The Metro Tabernacle worship service appeared in the International Herald Tribune (they were on international news) and the photo of the worshippers with their hands raised was taken in the Wisma MCA hall. My MD asked what was happening and Celia told him we were praising and worshipping God. MD didnt know that this was how we praised and worshipped God.
7) A few years ago a visiting speaker from overseas prophesied that the MTC would be in international news. At that time the congregation thought that their Pastor would be traveling around the world to preach as he was already doing that but she said now they understood what the speaker said. I told Celia if it was the doing of man, God would not be glorified but when it is not of man, then God would be glorified like in this situation.
8) It was good to see many church leaders of other denominations coming together at the MTC worship service over the last few days, united and praying together.
9) Lastly, sometime last year Celia approached me and said that she has been praying and she was convicted in her heart to give me an invitation to ask our church/cell to partner with them in prayer with regards to the move to the new church premise in Batu Caves . They were facing a lot of spiritual warfare. I remember sharing with the cell. We didnt know very much about them then. God is moving amongst us and we could choose to obey his call to pray or disregard and miss the excitement and blessing

I hope the above sharing would have encouraged us all to press on and serve our Almighty God. MTC has found favour with God and so has many other churches. We must increase our faith to the next level and stay united. PRAYER is the only powerful weapon God has given to all of us. Lets use it mightily for His Glory!

GB,
Jac

Serving Others

The following story is about blessing others, but it reminded me of how a neighbour and friend blessed me by lending his car for me to drive my son to school this morning. There was a power failure and the electric gate could not be opened. The by-pass key to the gate was missing. I had no choice but to seek my friend's help. Thank the Lord for my friend and neighbour!

Through love serve one another. —Galatians 5:13

When Cristine Bouwkamp and Kyle Kramer got married in the spring of 2007, they did something most of us wouldn’t think of doing. Instead of hosting a “sit-down dinner,” they held a simple reception at the church and invited their guests to help distribute food to people in need.
They bought a truckload of food and had it delivered to the church parking lot. Then they and their wedding guests served the people of the neighborhood. Cristine and Kyle said the first thing they wished to do as a married couple was to serve others. Because God had changed their lives so radically, they wanted to “bless God for blessing us with each other.”
The Kramers chose a great start for their new marriage—blessing God by serving others. The apostle Paul encouraged the Christians of Galatia: “Through love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13). Some of them believed that the ceremonial practices of the Old Testament were still binding on the church. So Paul wrote that salvation is by grace through faith. It is by faith we live out our new life in Christ. He reminded them that the law was fulfilled in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v.14).
As followers of Jesus, we’re here to serve Him out of love—to “bless God for blessing us.”
— Anne Cetas
O that my life may useful be
As I serve Jesus faithfully;
And may His love be seen in me—
This is my earnest prayer. —Hess
God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.

Source: Our Daily Bread

All of Me

This is a beautiful and meaningful song. Certainly I can make it my prayer because I fell short and need His redeeming grace to be in His will.

What is a Disciple of Jesus?

As our Life Groups are going to study the materials on discipleship perhaps this article will provide some basics of discipleship.

John MacArthur

In the past hundred years or so, it has become popular to speak of discipleship as a higher level of Christian experience. In the new terminology, a person becomes a believer at salvation; he becomes a disciple later, when he moves past faith to obedience.

Such a view conveniently relegates the difficult demands of Jesus to a post-salvation experience. It maintains that when He challenged the multitudes to deny self, to take up a cross and follow Him (Mark 8:34); to forsake all (Luke 14:33); and to leave father and mother (Matthew 19:29), He was simply asking believers to step up to the second level and become disciples.

But how does that square with Jesus' own words, "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matt 9:13)? The heart of His ministry was evangelism, and those difficult demands are evangelistic appeals.

Every believer is a disciple and vice versa. A careful reading of Acts shows that the word disciple has been a synonym for Christian from the earliest days of the church (cf. 6:1-2, 7; 11:26; 14:20, 22; 15:10).

Combined Sunday Service

This morning our Church had a combined service for the three congregations. Again we are blessed to have Dr.Tommy Chung giving us the sermon.

He started to share about the meaning of tithing. He said we must give cheerfully. After all God has blessed us with abundance, and we are only giving back a little.

Four Aspects of Word of God

1. God seeded – example the parable of the sower and parable of the mustard seeds. Seeds look insignificant but they contain life. God showed seeds in our hearts.
2. God Speech – e.g 1Peter 4:11 if one speaks he should do it like speaking words of God.
3. God is a sower – sowing seeds in our hearts.
4. God’s Son – The name of Jesus is God’s word. John 5:39-40

Four transforming Word of God

1. Christian mind – transform thinking of a Christian 1 Cor 2:16. It is like we have thoughts of Christ.
2. Reproof or conviction- its also conscience. God finds faults with us, that is telling us when we are wrong.
3. Good for correction – we need to be correct in our behaviour. Matt 5:48
4. For training to be righteous- 2 Tim 3:16

Now enjoy this song.

First Life Group Meeting

Yesterday evening we started the first Life Group (LG )meeting for 2010. After the restructuring last year, the new name for our small group is now Life Group.

Our LG is led by Brother Nicholas, and assisted by 4 LG assistants. The reason for the bigger numbers of assistants is to train leaders for future leadership roles.

The LG is suppose to study discipleship materials but before its official launch, our Church leaders wanted all LG leaders to be trained. Meanwhile, LG will study the sermon presented the previous week.

This week, our LG discussed on "Distinctiveness of Christianity" sermon by Dr. Tommy Chung last week. His main passage was Nehemiah 8:1-12. It was about how the Israealites were taught how to worship God again after a period of captivity in Babylon. We learnt how this passage is also applicable to us today, in particular our Church where we need to be anchored with the Words of God in our Christian walk. At the same time be mindful of worldliness that is taking over our lives.

We had heartfelt worship followed by fellowship with each other. Some of us were new to each other because we came from different cells.

"Thank you Lord for an opportunity to gather to worship you and to up hold your Name high. Also thank you for the Words of the evening to remind us to anchor on your Words. We pray all these in Jesus Most Precious Name Amen."

Christ-Centred Faith

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. —
Colossians 2:6

We longed to be a Christ centred Church, obviously we ourselves need to be Christ-centred. Sometimes, as human we do clamour for “mountain top” experiences in our Christian life, yet to experience an on-going Christ-centre life is much better. Read this article from Dailybread.

Some Christians try to live from one dramatic mountaintop experience to another. Their relationship with the Lord is based on their feelings at the moment. They go from Bible conferences to seminars to Bible studies, trying to maintain an emotional high.
Author Creath Davis, referring to his early Christian life, wrote, "I felt that if something spectacular was not transpiring, my faith was weakening. As a result, I missed most of what was going on in the valleys, waiting to get back to the mountain."
What's an effective antidote for a feelings-centered faith? According to the apostle Paul in Colossians 2, being Christ-centered is the answer. Having received Christ Jesus by faith, we are instructed to continue to "walk in Him" by faith (v.6) through both the highs and lows of life. By walking in close fellowship with Him each day, we become "rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith" (v.7). We grow steadily into maturity as we focus on Christ and what He has done for us, and not on our feelings.
Mountaintop experiences can be beneficial, but nothing is more profitable than an ongoing, Christ-centered life of faith. — Joanie Yoder
With faith in Christ we walk each day,
Accepting all that comes our way;
So let us view each task at hand
As being His divine command. —D. De Haan

The Gospel Message

A very interesting and educational video. A bit long but worth watching.

Be blessed!

Top Ten Tips for Life

This lesson is from Christianity.com, I just made it into a slide. Pray that you find this useful.

Sunday Service

Recovering the distinctiveness of Christianity

On Sunday 3rd Jan 2010 Dr.Tommy Chung preached on the above subject.

We are fast losing our distinctiveness as Christians as we identify with this world. We are losing ourselves in the process. In American there are Church denominations that do not believe in the resurrection and the second coming of Jesus which is the very foundation of Christianity.

In the old testaments time, the Israelites were also losing their distinctiveness because they were conqueror by many nations. However Prophets Ezra came and reverted that. Similarly we are living in a multi racial and cultural country where we may lose our Christian distinctiveness.

He referred to Nehemiah 8:1-12 where Ezra brought the Israelites back to basic in reading the Law of Moses, he praised the Lord and people responded with Amens!. They bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

We are in this world but not of this world. We have to protect our Christian distinctiveness otherwise we will be “downed” by the surrounding cultures and their ways.

Monthly Prayer Meeting

This eveing our Church started the monthly prayer meeting. Brother Tung Hui shared about prayer and what he read John Stott wrote. he said intercessory prayer is a mistery, because we do not know why God wanted us to intercede even though He knows everything. Nevertheless, prayer is effective.

Prayer Points for the evening:

1. Pray for unity of our Church.
2. Pray for outreach like Prison, Salvation Amy, Smile ministry,and others.
3. Pray for coming EGM & AGM
4. Pray for Life Groups and assistant leaders.
5. Pray for Pastor Sim and Chinese congregation.
6. Pray for Brother Emong in his outreach work.
7. Pray for Pastor John and his team.

We are very encouraged by the hearts of all who attended this Prayer Meeting. We continue to seek our Lord as we travel this road with Him.

The Prayer Meeting was fitting as it is a new beginning for our Church.

Amazing Grace

No, its not about the song of the same title. It is about this floweing plant at home. I think it is a kind of lily. About a year ago a neighbour gave me the shoots of this plant, I planted it but only leaves grew, later it withered, so I cut them. I thought it was dead, but my wife gave it regular watering. Then..amazingly a few days before 31st Dec 09 the shoots grew, and it flowered! At first two flowers and by 1st Jan 2010 four flowers came! Praise God! I feel that God is welcoming our family to the New Year 2010! Pray that you received some kind of welcome too! Our God is amazing, nothing escapes Him!

I hope that you enjoy the sights of this flower in the slide. God bless you!

Prayer Service 31st Dec 2009

It was very encouraging to see so many Brothers and Sisters turning up for our Prayer Service on 31st Dec 2009. Brother Soon King rightly pointed out that others were having their “happy hour” outside, we Christians were having our Happy Hour of prayers in Church. Praise God! Indeed, our prayers moved people to come and to commit to our Church!

At the same time the English group had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary, our Chinese Church members were having theirs in the upper room. We could hear their fervent songs worship downstair.

Sister Paik Im encouraged many when she shared about her work challenges, and in the process how God showed her and her husband to lead the youths of our Church.

One of our youths also shared about his EBC Church champ and how he learnt from Cornerstone Pastor Andrew Goh not to be selfish but be an ambassador for Christ.

Sister Sarah and Pastor Richard Sim both re-emphasized the prophetic Word by Dr. Tommy Chung, that was Isaiah 58:12 which was declared on 13th Dec 2009 in the joint Christmas Celebration. Four key words from this verse, Rebuild, Raise-up, Repair, Restore. We are to do all these to move forward in 2010. One particular point by Pastor Richard that caught my attention, was the word “Renovation”. He said we will be in trouble if we renovate our House, we should only repair it. You see, renovation is changing drastically, but repair is rebuilding and restoring. We are also going into the basic of teaching and learning the Words of God.

Dr.Tiong also shared about the meaning of Church, and what as a Church we should do. Many times, we may feel inadequate, but God gives us adequacy if we are willing to follow Him. E.g he quoted about Moses, who felt inadequate to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, yet God gave him the means.

Dr. Wong launched the new “cell” whose new name is now “Life Group”(LG). As we gather in small groups, they are like a mini churches, where we care about each other and also our neighbours. We are to love our fellow believers and others non believers outside.

We all prayed about the issues shared and also about our Church missions. All ministries and leaders were prayed for.

We thank Brother Soon King and Sister Sarah for initiating this prayer meeting.

Praise God for a meaningful and prayerful meeting. There was a corporate prayer session to up hold our Church, its leaders, and its congregation.

Hallelujah! Praise our Almighty God!

This video from Broolyn Tabernacle led by Pastor Jim Cymbala. He is also author of several books like Fresh wind, Fresh Fire, Break Through Prayers and others. Many came to the Lord in his church after 9/11 in US