FBC Church Camp 28 - 29th May 2010

Our Church camp started on 28th May (Fri, it began with baptising some children (second round on Saturday), followed by Worship service in the evening. We had the previlege of having Pastor Timothy Chow, his wife Jocye Chow to minister to us. Sister Adeline and her daughter from King's kids took on the children worship.

Pastor Timothy Chow and Sister Joyce Chow are from The Anglican Church, Westside, Singapore. He pioneered Calvary Church in Kuching. Welcome back Pastor!

In the evening, we had games organised by Brother Leslie, assisted by other brothers and sisters. All actvities were well organised and all of us participated in the games. One of the highlight of the game was the dressing up of "warriors" with magazines and newspapers (watch slides ). All had a tremendous good time laughing at the various performances.

There was a photo contest to act out the central theme of the Camp "Strengthen, ,one voice,arise, reach out".

The "warrior" performances were so hilarious and crazy that Pastor Timothy Chow commented that he has never seen such a bunch of "crazy" Christians! Anywhere, we could see that he and Joyce enjoyed themselves tremendously. We are very appreciative of their coming to share with us.

The subjects of his teaching was "It is the Lord" on Friday eveing. It was about the disciples who caught no fish at the lake and Jesus instructed where to cast their nets, there after they caught alot of fish. They did not recognise the Lord at first, just like us who do not see at times eventhough the solutions are in front of us. Amazingly the same message was preached by Pastor Cheli in Church last week with the same title! This is indeed a confirmation of God's direction! Praise God!

The second message was on Sunday morning, it was entitled, "Can God use me?". Pastor Tim read from Matthew Ch 1:1-17, the genealogy of Jesus. He advised that this narration has value because it showed us that there were all sort of people in Jesus's lineage, some were righteous and others were not. Therefore, we all can be of use by God no matter who and what we are. Like our them just rise up!

Personally I am very encouraged by his teachings as well as the impact of the camp. I believe many of members experienced encouragement, bonding and unity amongst ourselves, also the presence of our Lord.

Praise God for Pastor Timothy and Sister Joyce as well as the success of the camp! It was His doing and not anyone else.

Pastor Timothy and Sister Jocye were an encouragement to us because of their easy going nature. Their love for each other is something many can emulate too.

Holiness - Thomas Merton

As children of God, we are called to holiness. "Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy". Psalm 99:9

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentuchy wrote the following:

"All of us who have been baptised in Christ and have "put on Christ" as a new identity are bound to be holy as he is holy. We are bound to live worthy lives, and our actions should bear witness to our union with him. He should manifest his presence in us and through us. We are supposed to be the light of the world. We are suppose to be a light to ourselves and to others. That may well be what accounts for the fact that the world is in darkness! What then is meant by the light of Christ in our lives? What is "Holiness"? What is divine sonship? Are we serioulsy suppose to be saints? Can a man desire such a thing without making a complete fool of himself in the eyes of everyone else? It is not presumptious? Is such a thing even possible at all? To tell the truth, many laypeople and even a good many religious do not believe, in practice, that sanctity is possible for them. Is this just plain common sense? Is it perhaps humility? Or is it defection,defeatism and despair?

If we are called by God to holiness of life and if holiness is beyond our natural power to achieve (which it certainly is) then it follows that God himself must give us the light, the strength and the courage to fulfill the task he requires of us. He will certainly give us the grace we need."

His writing is profound and meaningful and I am sure many of us can learn from him.

Gambled Away RM8 million in 3 years.

The news of a teenager gambling away Ringgit Malaysia 8 million (about USD2.65 million) in 3 years was reported in The Star, a Malaysian national newspaper today. It was a shocker, imagine the amount of money wasted. Apparently this teenager started gambling at 16 years and by the time he reched 19 years he had blew away RM8 million! It was reported that his father was a compulsive gambler and he followed his footstep. Like father like son people say.

The Bible does not comdemn gambling but in 1 Timothy 6:10 says “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
( Now, his millionaire father is grieving and forbade him to gamble ).

Matthew 6:24 reads “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

( People who served mammon falls into the trap ).

Gambling may not necessarily be bad, but there are too many cases all over the world of the evil of gambling. Gambling includes buying all types of lotteries. In any case, the Bible warns in Proverbs 13:11 “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.”

There is a Malay saying "Sedikit sedikit lama lama jadi bukit" literally means "a little by little you can build a mountain".

Sunday Service

Ms Donda Panggabean, Administrator of Bethesda Hospital shared about the mission work of Medgo. The hospital is located at Serukam, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. This mission hospital was started by Dr.Wendell Geary in 1964. Dr.Geary hailed from Colorado, USA. Now his son is also serving as a doctor at the hospital.

The hospital has 100 beds, 8 specialists, 10 general practisioners, operating room, eye clinic, and a pharmacy.

From 2003 to 2009 2,087 patients have accepted Christ.

Dr.Geary is no stranger to FBC as our Brother Howe Tung,Sister Chuei Lian, Brother Chai Say and several others are also their friends.

To read more about this hospital please check out http://serukam.blogspot.com a blog by Dr.Tang Sie Hing when he and his colleague went on a mission to Bethesda Hospital.


Sermon by Pastor Cheli Nadarajah entitled "It is the Lord!". His sermon was on John Chapter 21, the story about Jesus meeting his disciples at the sea of Tiberias. The lesson was when we faced turmoil or difficulties we do not see what is in front of us just like the disciples who did not see that Jesus was with them by the shore.

His teaching was also about Jesus's love for us especially the lost. He said God's heart is for the lost.

Godliness

1 Timothy 4:7 (New International Version)

7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.

It is a struggle to be godly because most of us have alot of distractions in our lives. These distractions seem to be pulling us away, and keeping us from being godly. (Certainly this is true for me). As I understand godliness, one has to follow the commands of God,and live these realities daily. Like the example in the video, sport is an obvious distraction for many, in the US it is football, in Malaysia many people are also fans of football(British not American style). This is just a small part of the total distractions we faced! Yet, God calls all to be godly. Certainly it is about our priorities, if we put God first,than we will do godly things. Otherwise, like in the video we ignore God, may not necessary be opposing God.

That's my two-cents worth on godliness. Watch the authour speak on the video.

Internet Can Make You Happier?

I am sure you have read about the negative sides of the internet ranging from creating anxieties to people using it to commit crimes. Surprise, surprise on May 12th British researchers from Chartered Institute of IT ( Known as BCS ) found that people using the internet like bloging, social networking etc are happier. Appeared that people of lower income, from third-world, and women benefitted more than others. Hmmm...that's interesting,no wonder my other half enjoys her games on internet beside searching for information relating to health and communicating with friends.

However, no matter how good the internet is for our well being, we as Christians have to be cautious and discerning, in case we make the internet an idol.

Psalm 106:36 says "They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them."


Well, this verse is very clear. Having said that I have to watch out myself.

Grounded In God's Words

On Sunday, Brother Malcolm shared on the above subject.

Literally God’s Words are our lives. God has blue prints for us and His Words provide the instructions to these blue prints. That is why we need to know God’s Words, they are foundation for all Christians.

There are two portions of these Words, the logos and rhema. Logos refers to the total inspired Words of God and rhema refers to specific Words of God relating to individual.

Logos & Rhema – 1 Peter 1:23 -25, Matthew 8:8, 16, John 5:24, Ephesians 6:17

New birth – Deuteronomy 30:19-20, 32:44-47, 1Peter 1:23, Jas 1:18

Food – Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4, 1 Peter 2:2-3, Hebrew 5:12-14

Power – Psalm 119:9-11, 105, Jeremiah 23:29, Romans 1:16, Proverbs 4:12-13, I Thessalonians 2:13

How do we response to God’s Words ?

Devotion – Josiah 1:8, Psalm 119:97, Proverbs 2:1-6, Act 2:42, 17:11

Obedience – Deuteronomy 4:1-10, John 14:23, Numbers 33:2

Testing – Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Psalm 71:14-18, 78:1-7, Ezra 7:10, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 20:32, 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 5:12