PASTORAL CHAT

My Dear Readers

When there is a disaster that strikes our neighbours it is incumbent that Christians should render help as taught by Jesus in the parable of the good Samaritan. I remember my pastor grandfather, even when his salary was low, he would be the first to contribute, e.g. to flood victims.

I suggested our general offerings last Lord’s Day be sent to the tsunami victims and from the report of $7,491, you have done well. (Plus another $1,000 for Sri Lanka)

{From Calvary B-P Church Weekly, dated Jan 2, 05:

1. WORST EARTHQUAKE IN 40 YEARS

The last Sunday of 2004 (Dec 26) will long be remembered for the worst earthquake on Planet Earth in 40 years  registering 10 on the Richter scale. Being underwater, the upheaval lifted the water, causing ocean waves to sweep thousands of kilometers from its epicenter off the northern tip of Sumatra causing horrendous damage and death of unknown thousands in Indonesia, Penang, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. Suddenly, popular seaside resorts, with thousands of holiday-makers were turned into disaster areas, with great numbers dead, missing or injured. Suddenly merriment was turned to mourning.

2. SO IT WILL BE AT OUR LORD’S RETURN

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thess 5:3). Did not our Lord warn that one of the cardinal signs of His coming would be earthquakes? (Matt 24:7). Psalm 114:7 says, “Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord.” “The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever … He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth…” (Ps 104:31, 32).

Reader, be wise. Heed the earthquake sign. The earth is the Lord’s, and it quakes at His approach.

Question: How soon, O Lord? Only be ready!

3. “BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY: HOLD THAT FAST WHICH THOU HAST…” (REV 3:11)

The fact is the end time is fraught with extreme deception and universal unbelief. “… scoffers, walking after their own lusts” will deny the truth and ridicule the doctrine of our Lord’s return, saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet 3:3, 4).}

Presbyterian Missionary Balchin declared at our Chinese Presbyterian Synod that Christ has no need to come because he came again at Pentecost with the descent of the Holy Spirit.

The tsunami terror that has claimed at least 160,000 lives show how terrible will be Christ’s Second Coming when He judges the world. He may come in our life time, even as it is foretold in Rev. 9:13-16 at the Euphrates, i.e. Iraq! Be ready, all of us.

Your affectionate pastor
T T

Far Eastern Bible College reopened Monday, January 3rd, 2005 with a new intake of 8 students as follows:

1. Timbangen Tarigan, Indonesia (M);
2. Choi Young Sik, Korea (M);
3. KimMi Kyung, Korea (F);
4. Shin Bo Mi, Korea (F);
5. Song Sun Taek, Korea (M);
6. Rajan Shrestha, Nepal (M);
7. Wong Chee Leong, Singapore (M);
8. Arpornthip Chaita, Thailand (F).

The Faculty this Semester are:
1. Rev Timothy Tow, MDiv, STM, DD
2. Mrs Ivy Tow, BTh
3. Rev Jeffrey Khoo, BTh, MDiv, STM, PhD
4. Rev Koa KengWoo, BTh
5. Rev Quek Suan Yew, BArch, BTh, MDiv, STM
6. Rev Prabhudas Koshy, BSc, BTh, MDiv, ThM
7. Rev Jack Sin, BA, MDiv
8. Mr Tan Kian Sing, BEng, GDBA, MDiv
9. Mrs Jemima Khoo, BTh, MA, MRE
10. Miss Carol Lee, BBA, DipEd, MEd, MDiv
11. Mr George Skariah, BTh, MDiv, ThM
12. Elder Han Soon Juan, CertEd, CertTESL, DipTESL, MA
13. Elder Geoffrey Tan, BSc, BA (Hons), DipEd
14. Mrs Anne Lim, DipRSA, CertRK
15. Mrs Koa KengWoo, Music studies

 

THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter IX

John 9:7

The Pool of Siloam

The Pool of Siloam is identified with that which is today located at the southeast part of the City of Jerusalem. The waters come from the Gihon Spring via the tunnel built by King Hezekiah (II King 20:20; Chron. 32:30). It is thought that when Jesus declared Himself the living waters at the close of the Feast of Tabernacles (7:37, 38) He was using a figure from the waters of Siloam, which were used at this season to symbolise God’s blessings.

The significance of washing at the Pool of Siloam finds a penetrating interpreter in Matthew Henry. He says, “The waters of Siloam had of old signified the throne and kingdom of the House of David, pointing to the Messiah, Isa. 8:6, and the Jews who refused the waters of Shiloah, Christ’s doctrine and law, and rejoiced in the tradition of the elders. The evangelist takes notice of the signification of the name. Christ is often called the Sent of God; the Messenger of the covenant, Mal. 3:1; so when Christ told him to go to the pool of Siloam, he did in effect send him to Himself, for Christ is all in all, to the healing of souls. Christ, as a prophet, directs us to Himself, as a Priest. Go, wash in the fountain opened, a fountain of life, not a pool.

The cure was effected, the man came seeing. Here is an instance, 1. Of the power of Christ. What cannot He do, who could not only do this, but do it thus? No doubt this is He that should come. 2. It is an instance of the virtue of faith and obedience. This man let Christ do what He pleased, and what He appointed him to do, and was cured. They that would be healed by Christ must be ruled by Him. He came back from the pool wondering, and wondered at. He came seeing. This represents the benefit gracious souls find in attending on instituted ordinances according to Christ’s appointment. They have gone to the pool of Siloam weak, and have come away strengthened; have gone doubting, and come away satisfied; have gone mourning, and come away rejoicing; gone trembling, and come away triumphant; have gone blind, and come away seeing, come away singing, Isa. 52:8.”

The Pool of Siloam is the Pool, yea Fountain, of Him sent by God. Have you washed in this Pool that you may look not to the temporal things of this world, but to the eternal in the heavens?

John 9:8-17
Faith Tested Under an Ecclesiastical Gestapo

If we read between the lines, we can gather what took place as the blind man, besmeared with clay, wended his way to the pool. A crowd followed to see if his eyes would really open. As he washed, and washed, suddenly he cried, “Hey, I can see! I can see!” A greater crowd gathered as he hurried home to tell his people.

Jesus who had had many clashes with the Pharisees, representing the Jewish ecclesiastical authorities, was now under “ban”. This put a fear not only into the hearts of the sympathetic but also of the blind man’s parents. That is why they dared not exult in the healing of their son. When accosted by the Pharisees they rather retreated into their shell: “We know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself” (v. 21). So did the rest of the people waver, under an ecclesiastical Gestapo, as they began to express their doubts (v. 8, 9). Those responsible to the Jews even took him to a cross examination by the Pharisees (v. 13). What a terrible let down! Says Dr. David Smith at this point, “Instead of rejoicing in their neighbours’ good fortune, those people, to clear themselves of the suspicion of complicity, dragged him before the Pharisees, that is, the rulers of the synagogues who had pronounced the ban. It was indeed a serious case, since it was the Sabbath Day and the miracle was thus a violation of the Rabbinical law of Sabbath observance; yet it perplexed the dignitaries. For while some of them saw only the illegality of the miracle, others felt the wonder of it and recognised it as an evidence of our Lord’s divine commission; and when in the hope of obtaining fuller light on the case they appealed to the man – a mere lad, intelligent and nimble witted, very different from the old paralytic of Bethesda, he stoutly supported his Benefactor: “He is a prophet.”

“Truth”, according to Zorobabel, “endureth, and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth for evermore.” (I Esd. 4:38). St. Paul says, “For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” (II Cor. 13:8).