Mark 16:15 And Jesus said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Dear brothers and sisters,

How we wish the best thing about the newspaper that we read, and especially on the first day of the New Year, prints only the good news. If you have read Friday’s Straits Times, you would have realized that bad news are still ruling the air waves and the media. Television, radio and the newspapers are filled with bad news, be it on the first or the last day of every year.

In a world that is filled with trouble, it is becoming more and more difficult to find any “good news”. So perhaps a newspaper that carries only the “good news” is a bargain after all; but it may seem too good to be true in an imperfect world such as ours. Before the Lord ascended to heaven, He issued the Great Commission that carries the Good News to every man. The Lord spoke directly to the disciples and told them exactly what He would expect them to do during His physical absence from the earth. The disciples took the command of the Lord seriously: as a result of their faithful preaching and witnessing, thousands upon thousands came to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Acts of the Apostles has it that their messages were so powerful and effective that those who went against them accused them of “turning the world upside down”.

If the centre of gravity of the Christian world was in the first century and not in the 21st century, it is because what was once given as the Great Commission has become the Great Omission. Please remind ourselves that the Great Commission is to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, yet we may not have even taken it to the end of the corridor of our HDB flats!

Some studies have shown that 95% of Christians have not won a soul to Christ, 80% have not witnessed to any one and less than 2% are actively involved in church evangelism. And if these figures are anything to go by, it reflects the sad state of Christianity in the 21st century. Christians may somewhat believe that their responsibility is done when they come to Church every Sunday, and do nothing but allow the devil to do all he can to take people to hell. We may be satisfied with our salvation and have no desire for others to be saved.

Today, let us take a closer look at the Great Commission that many have omitted—may the Lord use us as His instruments to make inroads into the lives of others who need to be saved by the hearing of  the Gospel. May we sense the Great Commission to be more urgent as never before as a divine mandate for the unsaved. The Great Commission has the word “go”. It is a word of action that implies that it is impossible to go if we sit still or stay where we are. As we pass through this world, we are to carry the Gospel message at all times, sharing it with everyone that we may meet along the way.

Secondly, the word “preach” is the divine message to the unsaved. The word “preach” has the idea of making disciples. We are preaching the Gospel all the time through our words and our actions; that being so, we are either pointing people to Christ or pointing people away from Christ.

The Gospel message is a simple message of hope for the hopeless, a comforting message for the hurting,  a message of life to the dead and a message of peace for the troubled. If people are lost, they need the Gospel; if they do not know Him, they need to know Him. We are commanded to reach them. It is easy to carry out the Great Omission, but it takes much effort to carry out the Great Commission.

R is for Ready and Resolved

2009 Church Camp – Children’s Thanksgiving

This year our children speaker, Sister Kim Hoa, requested the children to write down their thanksgiving testimonies. Below are the thanksgiving testimonies of the older children.

Sarah Chng

Thank God that ~

* everything went smoothly thorough the camp

* I can learn more things about the book of Daniel

* I can even come for this camp.

* For  Sister Kim Hoa who taught us

Javan Koh:

I thank God that I could attend the Church camp as I have learnt a lot about Daniel—to learn to trust God even in life-and-death situations that He will keep me.

Here are some key lessons I learnt:

* Daniel gave praise to God always.

* He was a man of prayer.

* When praying, he said he was no better than a normal person. This teaches us to be humble.

* God will always deliver us.

* When God is with us, we will be brave.