PASTORAL CHAT
My Dear Readers
After worship a fortnight ago at which I preached, Elder Aaron Wang of Sharon B-P Church greeted me. He then introduced his younger brother Jack Wang, 54, to me. He had an idol in his house which he would have it removed because he wanted to become a Christian. They sought my help.
Gladly agreeing to go any time they fixed the time the next day, Monday afternoon 3.30pm. Elder Han Soon Juan would drive to my parsonage to fetch Elder Aaron Wang and me. My wife also came along and Hien, Vietnamese graduate, with his camera.
Aaron’s younger brother Jack stayed in Ang Mo Kio, so we got there in no time. Jack’s wife, having believed the Lord with husband greeted us with a broad smile.
After singing “In the Cross, In the Cross, Be my glory ever, All my sins are washed away, In the Blood of Jesus”, I read from Ps. 115 and Ps. 135 the condemnation on idols: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not….: They that make them are like unto them.” How about idol worshippers?
At that point we started the removing process. With several black plastic bags Elder Aaron Wang had brought we had a small blackbearded idol and a big brown idol packed into them, with the joss bowl full of ashes and even oranges offered to the idols.
All these went into Elder Han’s car where we quickly drove away to 9A Gilstead Road. All remaining students staying at the College came to witness my despatching the two idols with a hammer. The remains were swiftly thrown into the rubbish truck.
Elder Aaron Wang invites Jack and wife and two grown up children to worship at Sharon B-P Church. If they wish to come to RELC we welcome them with open arms.
This is the third time in recent years we have the execution of false gods. Amen.
Your affectionate pastor
T T
THE GOSPEL OF LIFE:
Chapter III
To Him Not Born a Second Time Jesus Christ is the Breath of Life
John 3:16, perhaps the most famous verse in the whole Bible, is found in this chapter. If the Gospel of John is called the Gospel of Life, this verse might be called the Verse of Life.
How do we know that a person is alive? When he has breath in his nostrils. How did man become a living soul? When God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7). This life that God had imparted to man not only refers to his physical life, but more important to his spiritual life. This raises man far above the apes, for apes and other animals were merely created out of the earth; but man, alone, is made of “the dust of the ground” plus the breath or life God specially breathed into him. Thus he is said to be made in the image of God.
But the spiritual life man had received from God was lost when man disobeyed Him, “for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Hence, for a person to live the life God had given him, above the level of animals, he must be restored. A man who has drowned can be restored by artificial respiration. A man who is dead in trespasses and sins can be resuscitated only by the Breath of Life which the Son of God gives. This is what all the talk of being born again actually is, not as it is loosely used by the world since President Carter.
The process of breathing anew into a spiritually dead man is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit must work in a man’s heart to convict him of his sins, of his need of repentance from his sins, and to cause him to look to the crucified Saviour for salvation.
This theology of salvation is discussed by our Lord with Nicodemus, a well-educated “ruler” of the Jews. He belonged to the Jewish Sanhedrin, he was an elder of the Church, but he had the shell of religion, not its kernel or life. Thus he needs to be born again. All the “churchianity” you might inherit from Christian parents to the third or fourth generation will never get you to heaven, my Reader! Salvation is an individual thing. The question is, are you born again? Do you have the Breath of Life in you? St. Paul says, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Rom 8:9).
John 3:1-13
The Breath of Life Opens our Eyes and Quickens our Feet
V. 3 says: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Unless you are born again you are a blind person. All the mysteries of God, of heaven, of the life everlasting and the
joy of the Christian life are meaningless to you. I Cor. 2:14 says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” You may come to Church and hear many sermons, but you will not understand what the Bible says and not appreciate what the preacher expounds from it. The spiritual things spoken are unintelligible to you. You cannot see the colours of the rainbow of heavenly truths if you are not born again. No wonder you soon stop coming to church, for you say, the service and sermon are meaningless. May the Breath of Life, of the Lord Jesus Christ, open your eyes by His Holy Spirit.
V. 5 says, “Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This is a most crucial subject: entrance into heaven! Not by good deeds, education, respectability, position in Church, is a man qualified for heaven, but by being born again by the Breath of Life, Jesus Christ.
The process of rebirth is totally dependent upon the working of God’s Spirit. V. 8 tells us of the mystery of the Spirit’s working upon an unsaved person’s soul. As the wind blows at will, sometimes in full force, sometimes as a gentle breeze, so does God come upon us as He pleases. Some are converted in a traumatic experience, as Saul on the Damascus Road; some are converted like Timothy through pious upbringing under godly Grandma Lois and Mother Eunice. By the new birth, we suddenly spring to life, swift of feet to enter heaven.
The water mentioned here is not the water of baptismal regeneration as taught by Roman Catholics. The water here is plainly the water of the Holy Spirit, as the Greek word kai for and can be translated even. Yes, not physical water which is used in the sacrament or holy ceremony, but the spiritual, as it is stated in I Cor 12:13, “For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body ….” Your water baptism, without the inner baptism of the Spirit, will never qualify you for heaven!
The idol’s head broken with a hammer by Pastor Tow
