PASTORAL CHAT
My Dear Readers
We attended the 10th Anniversary of Kemaman Bible-Presbyterian Church, Friday July 2, 04. Rev and Mrs Koa came to fetch us, Thursday, 9.30am. A second car that came along was driven by Seah Seow Hock with wife and son, plus Raymond and wife. To save time we went by the second link which led us by Yong Peng and Tangkak where we were cut off from the Expressway and where Rev Koa took us to a sumptuous lunch.
From there we winded our way where we passed by Segamat to take us by a new highway to Kuantan. From Kuantan to Kemaman, also call Chukai, 30 odd miles north, we halted midway at a seaside resort for the night. It was about 5pm and we ate a Chinese dinner nearby. The next morning the party except me visited our Kindergarten and Church at Kuantan. There they got to see Joshua Khoo with the new van bought with our gifts. They have twelve students in the Kindergarten. Mrs Helen Eio visits once a month to help teach some thirty Sunday School children and Mui Mui whenever she can. It is a promising work.
We arrived in Kemaman in time for a Laksa lunch prepared by Mrs Wee after which we were put up at a resort out of town but returned for the buffet dinner in Church downtown. Nearly 100 gathered from far and near. Dr Jeffrey Khoo and Dennis Kwok left by bus the same Friday morning and arrived just in time for the buffet. Because Dr Khoo had a speaking appointment they had to return to Singapore 11.30pm Friday night.
My message was taken from Heb. 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is (God), and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
God is the rewarder of our 10-year old Church in Kemaman. Dr Wee was an enthusiastic fisherman and owned a fishing yacht. At one of the 5 or 6 anniversaries I attended he said he might become a fisher of men for Christ. That is faith. Then I heard he and wife and daughter were baptised. Last he left the old Presbyterian Church to join us B-P and offered his shophouse downtown.
Today he has increased his witness by starting a Chinese branch, all by faith. While the English Service is weekly maintained by B-P preachers from Singapore and Malaysia and the attendance is over 40 the Chinese Service is attended by about 15. Recently four were baptised for the Chinese Service by Rev Liew Hon Seng who comes once a month. Rev Lee Kim Shong also supports the Chinese Service and this time he brought a choir to sing. All this by faith.
Our return journey took us along the east coast via Pekan, Rompin, Endau and Mersing where we stopped by our own flourishing resort and lastly Singapore.
Your affectionate pastor
T T
THE GOSPEL OF LIFE:
Chapter III
John 3:31-36
Christ is above all because He comes from above
This section seems to be the author’s testimony to Christ in support of the Baptist’s self-abnegation.
Why must Christ be exalted above all? Why must John the Baptist’s followers turn to Christ, now that He is revealed? Because He is from above. He is sent by God. He is the Father’s only begotten Son. He is the Beloved of the Father to Whom is given power over all things. He is the appointed Saviour in whom we must believe in order to be saved. Conversely, if we reject Him, we can only incur the anger of God forever!
Yes, Jesus is the Word of God, the mouthpiece of God. Prophets spoke what Jesus’ Spirit told them to speak, but Jesus spoke by Himself. The apostles though endued with power had as much power as was given by Christ. Christ, being the Son, was given unlimited power. He had the fulness of the Spirit working with Him. This is another reason why He is above all.
Thus, we see the disciples standing quite embarrassed and helpless before their Lord when the father of the lunatic boy reported to the Master, “And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him” (Matt. 17:16). The Christ Who is above all saved the situation. It is to God’s glory that those who seem to be successful in the ministry should become crest-fallen when they do not render due worship to their Lord.
Even John the Baptist who so exalted Christ in the heyday of his ministry should somewhat cast doubt on his Lord in the hour of temptation (Read Matt. 11:2-6; Luke 7:19-23). John wavered because he was only a man, and though declared the greatest prophet, to him was given the Spirit by measure. Even Moses the Lawgiver could not enter the Promised Land because he did not do exactly what God had told him to do in bringing out water from the rock. Christ is the only One sinless, peerless, immaculate, because He had the Spirit with Him in unlimited measure.
Should the failures of great servants of God discourage us? St Paul says, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11).
Finally, read what the Apostle to the Hebrews says in contrast between the Son of God and the servant Moses: “And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Chapter IV
To her unquenched by five-fold philandering Jesus Christ is the Water of Life
As in Ch. 2, this Chapter is composed of two parts – the account of the Woman of Samaria followed by the healing of the Nobleman’s son. For brevity we have given Jesus as the Water of Life.
Where is Samaria? On the map you will find it midway between Nazareth in the north and Jerusalem in the south. Samaria became capital of the Ten Tribes of the Northern Kingdom some decades after its separation from Judah in the south. It was founded by the dynasty of wicked king Ahab. In the days of our Lord, the name Samaria applied rather to the whole Province.
Who were the Samaritans? They were a mixed race from intermarriage between foreigners and the local people. The Samaritans practiced a mixed religion and as a result “They feared the Lord and served their own gods” (II Ki. 17:33). Hence Samaritans were despised by the Jews. In order to hurt our Lord, the Jews called Him a Samaritan (Jn. 4:48).
But our Lord was not prejudiced against the Samaritans. Rather, He exposed the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders by His parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:30-37). He sets us the example by speaking kindly to the woman of Samaria. This so surprised the woman that she asked, “How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria?”
That the woman of Samaria has had five husbands reflects the sinfulness of human nature. Surely hers is not a case of remarrying after the death of each former one. Now the word “philander”, according to Chambers Dictionary, means “to make love”, “to flirt”.
As it is composed of two Greek words, love and man, we use it in the sense of aggressiveness from the normally weaker sex.
Notice that the Samaritan woman is well-versed in theology, but in her sinful state, her theoretical knowledge of God did not save her. She needed to be born again, be thoroughly converted from her immoral life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ’s preaching wrought such repentance in her heart and Christ’s Godliness so overwhelmed her that she must testify to the whole world of her new-found salvation.
A new born Christian is a bubbling Christian, so filled with joy of salvation that it overflows everywhere as our Lord later declares, “Out of the belly shall flow rivers of living water” (Jn. 7:38). If Jesus is the Water of life that flows into you, there must be an outflow. Do you have this inflow and outflow experience?
