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LIFE BIBLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Conservation & New Extension
Block at 10 Gilstead Road

 
Ye Are God's Building
by Elder (Dr) Sherman Ong, Chairman,
Beulah Project Committee
The Bible describes the church as God’s Building
(1 Cor. 3:9), the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), and the Bride of Christ
(Rev. 21:9). God is pleased to give Life Bible-Presbyterian Church both
9/9A and 10 Gilstead Road for His people to gather for worship and
fellowship. So, the Beulah project is more than a physical building
project, it is a spiritual building project as well. As we witness the
progress of the building process each week, let us be mindful that we
are also building each other up in the Lord’s vineyard.
The Corinthian Christians were blessed by God with
many spiritual gifts. The manifestation of spiritual gifts is "for the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12). God empowers His people to build the
church in the way that He has designed it to be. The Corinthian
Christians were also blessed with much biblical knowledge. However,
there was apparent abuse and pride over the possession of knowledge.
Hence, the apostle Paul had to warn them that "knowledge puffeth up, but
charity edifieth" (1 Cor. 8:1). The inappropriate application of
knowledge, and worse still, the wrongful application of biblical
knowledge can cause divisions in the Church of God. God knows that His
people need to be equipped with knowledge to serve Him well and to do
His holy will. The prophet Hosea warns, "My people are destroyed for
lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also
reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast
forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." (Hosea
4:6) The lack of knowledge or the abuse of it is not God-honouring! What
shall we do then? How then can we build the spiritual building? We can
learn several lessons from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in 1
Corinthians 3.
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul had to deal with the problem
of schism (divisions) in the church. Paul highlighted three specific
sins in the church, namely, envying, strife and divisions. There was a
lack of spiritual maturity in the Corinthian Church. In summary, there
was a party spirit. At the beginning of Paul’s letter to the
Corinthians, he said, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be
no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the
same mind and in the same judgement." (1 Cor. 1:10) Any form of church
in-fighting is of the devil. It is never God’s will for brethren to
engage in bitter contentions. The Corinthians actually had one group who
identified themselves as Paul’s party, another with Apollos, another
with Cephas (Peter), and yet another with Christ! Are we like that
today? God forbids. Within Life Bible-Presbyterian Church, we hold to
the same constitution and the same historical fundamental reformed
doctrines. We believe in Verbal Plenary Inspiration (VPI) of the Word of
God, and we believe in the Providential Preservation of the Bible.
Is there envying, strife and divisions today? Beware
of God’s warnings! Those who seek to destroy the Church of God will
continue to confuse the flock with new doctrines and dogmatic human
interpretations of biblical doctrines which are untenable and heretical.
For Beulah Project to succeed, we need to feed the Church of God
faithfully with the pure milk of God’s Word. Every member must learn the
Word of God with diligence like the Bereans in Acts 17:10-11. Every
member of God’s building must place whole-hearted faith in the
infallible and inerrant Word of God. "So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God." (Rom. 10:17) This is the most important
programme of our church — the teaching of the Word of God. God’s
time-tested Word will prevail against the wiles of the devil and triumph
over every attack of Satan. Let us hear the voice of our Chief Shepherd
always, and stay focused on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ alone. We
must stay united as one body to build the house of God together.
Paul says, "According to the grace of God which is
given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and
another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth
thereupon." (1 Cor. 3:10) We must always remind ourselves that Christ is
the Head of the Church, and He is the very Foundation we build ourselves
on. Only when we recognise that Christ is our true Foundation, then can
we focus on the ministry of the church to build the spiritual building.
We need to evangelise sinners and edify the saints. This is the mission
of the Church. One day, this building will be tested by fire. If it
withstands the test of fire, it can be presented to Christ as our sweet
savour sacrifice. So, let us focus on Christ and build to glorify Him.
May the Gracious Lord help us to build physically and spiritually to the
praise and glory of His name. Amen.
THANKSGIVING
¨ Thank God for the much awaited completion of the
piling works despite the unfavorable weather condition in the past few
months and the challenging underground resistance due to unexpected
boulder discovery.
¨ Thank God for the good progress with the roofing work
of existing 2-storey Beulah House nearing completion, internal
refurbishing works and the new 5-storey Annex Building under
construction.
PRAYER ITEMS
¨ Pray for the smooth progress of the construction of
5-storey annex building.
¨ Pray that the Lord will guide our Main Contractor as
the delicate and intricate phase of internal refurbishing and external
restoration works will be taking shape for the next few months.
¨ Pray that the Lord will grant wisdom to the Beulah
Steering Committee and Beulah Project Committee as the members continue
to labour together in making critical decisions pertaining to project
development.
¨ Pray that God’s people will continue to
give willingly and sacrificially towards the building fund.
Beulah Project Financial Report as at 20 April 2008
Contributions: $5,992,446.00
Expenditure (total): $1,183,744.00
1st Progress Payment Nov 07 $275,198
2nd Progress Payment Dec 07 $226,795
3rd Progress Payment Jan 08 $186,088
4th Progress Payment Feb 08 $119,771
5th Progress Payment Mar 08 $216,620
SP Services (Connection Fee) $ 36,808
Professional fees $ 44,180
Deomoliton cost $ 27,489
3-container classrooms $ 26,943
Fees for submission of plans $ 18,122
Pest control $ 2,710
Miscellaneous fees $ 3,020
Steering Committee
Rev Charles Seet
Eld Khoo Peng Kiat
Eld Dr Lim Teck Chye
Eld Dr Sherman Ong
Project Committee
Eld Dr Sherman Ong
Mr Pang Leong Siang
Mr Seow Cheong Kiong
Dn Stephen Tan
Mr Joseph Tern
Editorial Team
Dn Stephen Tan
Mrs Rhoda Lim
For feedback: beulah@lifebpc.com


Beulah Line
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October 2005 (English:
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October 2005 (Chinese: Page 1,
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November 2005 (English:
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December 2005 (English:
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January 2006 (English:
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February 2006 (English:
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March 2006 (English:
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April 2006 (English:
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May 2006 (English:
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June 2006 (English:
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July 2006 (English:
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August 2006 (English:
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September 2006 (English:
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April 2007
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July 2007
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October 2007
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January 2008
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May 2008
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