Dear Brethren,

Colleague with Cancer

A few weeks ago my colleague called me to apologise that he could not attend a meeting that I have called for. He told me he went for a scope test earlier and the doctor just called to want to see him the next day which clashed with my meeting. He is a Christian and we shared that God’s will be done whatever the doctor has to inform him. My colleague is a healthy person and we would never have imagined the doctor told him that he has stomach cancer.

How life can change in a moment for him as he has to go for an immediate surgery to remove most of his stomach and not knowing if chemo is needed. Work stopped for him and life becomes an unknown future to battle cancer. Pray for him. The lesson for me and all of us is that our lives and our times are in God’s Hand. The Lord gives and the Lord can take it away anytime. How is your walk with the Lord? 2013 will come and go in a moment. Do not waste your life away. Spend it for the Lord and with the Lord. Remember what the Bible says of time in Ephesians. 5:16 :

“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Population White Paper

The government recently released the population white paper and it generated a lot of discussions especially of the possible 6.9 million people in Singapore n 2030. When I hear and read of conversations of people worrying of the housing cost, over-crowding of the public transport system, foreigners taking over jobs from the citizens, it seems to me everyone is assuming they will live to 2030 and they will remain the same as they are now in health and strength. 2030 is another 17 years away and we do not even know what will happen tomorrow. As Christians, let us live the way God has taught us in James 4:13-15 :

13 Go to now, ye that say,
To day or to morrow we will go into such a city,
and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.
For what is your life? It is even a vapour,
that appeareth for a little time,
and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will,
we shall live, and do this, or that.

British House of Commons Approves Gay Marriages

The British House of Commons voted overwhelmingly on 5 February 2013 to approve a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Britain. After a six-hour debate, the Commons vote was 400 to 175 for the bill. The legislation, which applies to England and Wales, would permit civil marriage between same-sex couples. In Singapore, there have been pressures on the government to repeal the homosexual law.

What does the Bible say? Read Romans 1:26-28 of the sin of homosexuality and gay marriage which are against the Word of God. This is the end times we are living in and it should not surprise us to see the world heading in this sinful and wicked direction. The Lord Jesus Christ will soon come to judge the world. May we be found in Him to be saved from the wrath to come.

26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:
for even their women did change the natural use
into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men,
leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another;
men with men working that which is unseemly,
and receiving in themselves that
recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind,
to do those things which are not convenient.

Elder John Leong