PASTORAL CHAT
My Dear Readers
Eduardo Morante who has been holding a Bible Class for Filipino maids at Life Church has resigned and comes over to RELC where I understand there are 6 other Filipino maids needing instruction. With the coming over from Life Church of some maids they will have good company.
Now we have Febian an Indonesian student to open a class for Indonesian maids. Thank God some are allowing their Indonesian maids to be instructed, that they may enjoy part of the Sabbath.
How quickly time flies! FEBC’s long vacation is over. Tomorrow school reopens with the enrolment of over one dozen with a first one from China. FEBC students must learn to study by faith. 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. According to Calvin faith which is given by illumination of the Holy Spirit is superior to human intelligence. Foolish faith, as denounced by one of my assistant pastors, is however upheld by God. I Cor. 1:27-31 says, “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
Foolish faith which declares we believe in a 100% perfect Bible without any mistake is opposed by their human intellect which says it has mistakes, but we have God’s declaration that “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matt. 24:35; Mark 13:31; Lk. 21:33)
All the mysteries of God cannot be explained by human intellect. For example the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the Creation ex nihilo, etc., etc.
Your affectionate pastor
T T
THE GOSPEL OF LIFE:
Chapter IV
John 4:1-19
The Water That Quenches Every Sinful Thirst
There is an ancient well in the whereabouts of Sychar that remains to this day. A Greek Orthodox Church is built over it, so it becomes today a tourist attraction. It is a very deep well with a stone wall on top of it.
Now, it was the “sixth hour” when our Lord sat on the well, because he was “wearied with his journey.” While the disciples were gone to the city to buy food for the Master, there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Using a language this woman could understand, Jesus offered her living water that keeps bubbling as from a well, so she need not be thirsty. What a lesson in homiletics, in the art of effective speaking!
While the woman was concerned then with physical needs, our Lord was leading her to her spiritual needs. Hence, the leading question on her husband that exposed her unquenchable sexual thirsts. All inordinate desires, excesses, abandonments to lust, are symptoms of sin. Only He who has the living Water, the Water of life, can quench the thirst that stems from sin!
Notice how gently Jesus deals with the woman – for He understands her helplessness. “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). What a gentle Saviour. O how you and I, sinners saved by grace, should love Him. How the woman of Samaria loves Him too, because when she confesses her sins to Him, she finds forgiveness. There is no sin too great that Christ cannot forgive!
John 4:20-30
Which Mountain?
Inasmuch as the Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with one another because of their differences in race and religion, they had different places of worship.
For the Jews Moses had commanded that they shall worship at only the place God would choose for them (Dt. 12:15; 11). When they entered the Promised Land it was Shiloh (Joshua 18:1). Under David, and since then to Jesus’ day, it was Jerusalem.
The Samaritans, however, could boast of many sacred hills where the Patriarchs had worshipped. Suffice it to mention only the twin mountains of Gerizim and Ebal where Joshua led the Israelites in a marathon worship. Most probably it was Mt Gerizim that the woman referred to as being the Samaritans’ place of worship. Today, the Samaritans worship and sacrifice on this mountain.
The Jews rightly worshipped at Jerusalem the only appointed place since David, as noted above. With the advent of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, they were ushered into New Testament times. No more was the restriction to only one place of worship (Dt. 12:15). For the Gospel was to be preached to all nations, worldwide. To worship at only one place would be impossible.
What is more important is the “spirit and truth” in worship. And the way of worship through Jesus Christ is open to all men. Which mountain? You have the answer!
No more the insistence on Jerusalem or Gerizim. Wherever you’ve found the Saviour that is the place you begin to worship the Father in His Name.
John 4:31-38
Mission and Vision
When the disciples returned with food they had bought for the Master, they were surprised by His word, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of”. The work of God cannot be measured by secular, professional standards. It is a mission to be accomplished in a race against time. In being so immersed in His personal witnessing to the Samaritan woman our Lord had become oblivious to hunger. The joy of seeing her soul saved became His strength. That is the secret He is now imparting to His pupils. To serve God willingly is a blessing. To serve God unwillingly is a burden. Henceforth let your burden of service become a blessing!
Not only is our Lord imbued with a high sense of mission. He is also carried away by the horizon of His vision. He sees far beyond the disciples. The disciples see the grain in the field still as young shoots. The Master sees a harvest of souls for immediate reaping, viz. the unwanted Samaritans. Let us look way beyond our own field to the fields God would send us. Let us not be limited by our denominational interests, but cooperate with others in God’s harvest field. And those who work get paid!
John 4:39-43
Everlasting life is a well-spring that flows on and on
In v. 14 our Lord says, “But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. The everlasting life we receive from Christ not only quenches our spiritual thirst but also the thirst of others. This marvellous truth is restated in Jn. 7:38, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. A saved person is alive forevermore not only for himself but for the saving of others. Salvation is multiplied from him as a well-spring and flowing rivers cannot be contained in themselves.
This truth is experienced by the Samaritan woman as by no other person, v.30-42. A great revival broke out. A whole city was taken by storm, and drenched by a spiritual rain never seen before. Deep ditches of repentance as exemplified in the repentance from 5-fold philandering in the Samaritan woman were dug which now received the Water of the Spirit. No Gospel campaign can last beyond its own duration unless the sin question is dealt with. Hence the difference between John Sung’s deepdigging ministry and today’s inch-shallow superficiality. One flows on like a wellspring the other is dried up after a false start.
Children’s Corner, Resort Lautan Biru, Mersing
