Life is like Vapour

Since last Thursday I have been thinking about this subject. I was reminded when I visited a brother's father who was sick in the general hospital here in Kuching. I recalled how my own father passed away in the same hospital about ten years ago. Really life is like a vapour, we are here on this earth for a very short while, and we are gone. James 4:14 said "You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away". All the more we must do the important things like following God's commands as closely as possible, and not to waste our lives on unimportant matters. I am telling myself I must follow God's commands more each day. He told us to number our days. Back to our brother's father, he passed on Saturday evening. On Saturday morning when I visited him, he was alive but sickly. Life is such that we all must go through. Let us make full use of this short life here.

On behalf of our Life Group, our condolence to Brother Anthony and Sister Poh Chuo on the passing of his father and her father-in-law respectively. May God comfort you in time of needs. God bless.

Sunday Sermon

Gospel of Mark

This morning Pastor Richard preached on the Gospel of Mark. He started by introducing this Book to the audience.

Gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospel. It means seeing together. It was likely that Mathew and Luke had their source in Mark. Mark has 105 sections, out of this 93 are found in Matthew, and 81 in Luke. Mark contains 661 verses, and 606 verses of this are found in Matthew, and 320 verses in Luke.
Mark was the son of a rich lady named Mary of Jerusalem. His other name was John, so he was also known as John Mark. When Paul was in prison in Rome, Mark was with him Col 4.10. In the earlier mission when Paul took Mark with him he quitted half way and Paul was angry with him. Second time Paul had a change of heart, he decided to bring Mark along 2 Tim 4:11 Mark was with Peter too. Peter called him “Mark my son” 1 Pet 5:13

Mark was targeting the gentiles and he explained the customs like washing of the hands in the Gospel.

The main theme of the Book is the Cross, Discipleship and Jesus the Teacher. In Mark, he started “the beginning” whereas Matthew and Luke started with the birth of Jesus. In the beginning God’s plan for His people was already established. God knows, in fullness of time He sent His son Gal 4:4. God is in control.
John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Lord. He baptized even the Jews and not only the gentiles. The Jews themselves were not supposed to be baptized. Jesus was baptized to show to humanity the requirement of repentance. “He must increase I must decrease”. Temptation in the desert was also God’s plan.
It is ability verses availability. When he called the disciples they left what they were doing and followed Jesus without question – they were available. Complete trust in God.

The question is “Who hold our future and not what is our future”.

Watch the following video whose outlines are similar to Pastor Richard's sermon.

Alpha Course Week 2

Last evening, Friday 6th Aug, our Church had the 2nd Week of Alpha Course. Once again we had more than 20 guests joining us and that was very encouraging. We watch Nicky Gumbel's presentation of "Who is Jesus?". Being in the same room I could hear a lot of discussions after the video presentation. We pray that all of our guests will join us again next week. In my group we had 2 guests, one a Catholic and one a non believer, glad that they participated a little and they were comfortable in the group. Thanks to our Bros & Sis who kept them felt at home.

Here is a slide show of our gathering.

Bro Nick and Bro Alvin sang two songs "You Raise Me Up" and "I know Who Holds The Future", here is the video of the second song. A very meaningful song.

Amazing Grace

The beautiful song "Amazing Grace" rendered by a young girl. Be blessed by this song!

Remains of John The Baptist Found

Bone fragments of St John the Baptist appear to have been found on Sveti Ivan Island near Bulgaria's southern Black Sea.

He is considered one of the most important figures in Christianity.

Further tests are still to be carried out on the fragments, which were discovered late last month.

The BBC's Malcolm Brabant reports.

Developing Your Prayer Life

As our Church embarked on the Alpha Course, one of the important aspect of this project is prayer. In fact, in the Alpha guide book as well as in Nicky Gumbel's message he emphasized the importance of prayers. As a Church we need to pray for those friends whom we have invited to the course. We already have their names, therefore our prayers for them can be directed to each of them specifically. Better still some of them we already know some of their backgrounds, so we can pray more effectively. We are all encouraged to pray individually, as well as corporately especially before the start of each Alpha session.

Watch this video about prayer.

Sunday Service - 1st Aug, 2010

On Sunday our Pastor Samuel spoke at our Church. He was a very simple person. You would not guess that he was a pastor. Great of him to share with our Church. What I got was that he told our congregation to stay focus on Jesus and to be obedient to Him. I did not hear much of his sermon because I was doing other Church duties. Later he prayed for everyone.

Church Business Meeting

We also had our quarterly Church business meeting. Nothing major, just update members of what is going on and also the new Church building. By end of this month, the building committee will call for tenders to determine the cost of the building. If not mistaken, it should be around RM2 to RM2.5 million. Details are yet to be worked out. Bro Chiew (Building committee member) said he was feeling the pressure because in FBC website there is a count down clock for the completion of the Church.