Scripture Memory: Communion with God.
VERSE : Psalm 27:4 "One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple."

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O Worship the LORD in the Beauty of Holiness

3 June 2007
8.00 am Worship Service:
Rev Colin Wong (The New Life: Alive in God
10.45 am Worship Service:
Rev Colin Wong (Are You a "One Thing" Person?), Lord's Supper
6:00 pm Rehoboth Evening Service:
Ho Chee Lai (Divine Corporate Employment Structure)

10 June 2007
8.00 am Worship Service:
Rev Chris Sidwell (The Fragrance of Christ)
10.45 am Worship Service:
Rev Chris Sidwell (The Fragrance of Christ)
6:00 pm Rehoboth Evening Service:
Rev Chris Sidwell (Four Tests of Spirituality)

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Evangel Bible-Presbyterian Church (EBPC) is a church born out of tribulation. It is of the Lord’s mercy that He has brought us out of the travail of that experience into the joy of commemorating our first church anniversary on 6th May 2007. It is like hearing afresh the voice of He that is holy and true and that has the key of David, "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it" (Revelation 3:8).

From the tumult of yesteryear, we are thankful we can testify that it is good and also pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity. Our unity is, of course, based on unity in truth. Yet, paradoxically, it is on the matter of truth that the church is so often divided to her own sorrow. This need not be so. Our problems are at least two-fold.

For one, it is not so much in our desire to know the truth, as in our failure to discern what can be known and what cannot be known. That which is unknowable, for which the scripture is not explicit, is a non-issue. Yet, there are a few extreme fundamentalists with a very nauseating penchant for majoring in the minors, who would turn a non-issue into an earth-shaking ecclesiastical event! They delude themselves into believing that only they are privy to the truth and only they are qualified to rule what is and what is not truth! Dissidents are of course apostates and it is therefore justified to "…come out from among them, and be ye separate..." In reality, it amounts to a ‘holier -than-thou’ attitude. They forget that it is level ground at the foot of the cross for all sinners. Such sentiment must be misguided. That is euphemistic. Nay, I say it is a delusion of the first order. We must turn away from such delusionists; otherwise we would be charting a dangerous course for the church.

Secondly, a church that is embroiled in schism is carnal and has certainly neglected her duties as a church. It was Martyn Lloyd-Jones who sarcastically remarked, "Show me a church with a division and I will show you a church with a lot of time in its hand." An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Divisions in the church are symptomatic of a spiritual problem. It is a sick church that has forgotten that its primary goal is to preach Christ. Such a church has too much time on hand because it has forgotten the foundation of its faith, the atonement of Christ and has resorted to arguing about non-essentials. If only Christ’s death and resurrection have been the focus of church life, it would have yielded, instead, the peaceable fruits of grace, righteousness, gratitude and remembrance.

For this very reason, that EBPC may not be distracted from our primary goal, we have adopted 1 Corinthians 2:2 as our church theme, "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified". We also adopted the name "Evangel" to declare to all that we are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. We want to stay away from what is unprofitable to focus on evangelism and missions. This will and must always be the thrust of EBPC. May God help us.

A church that desires to progress must constantly ask this question, "What’s the point?" We need this compass to stay in tune. We pride our superior theology and ourselves in a great deal of scholarship but we ask, "What’s the point of it anyhow?" We churn out hoards of publications and lengthy polemics ever so readily. We pride ourselves in exegetical excellence.

We would like to believe that our work and writings are the products of years of research and pure scholarship and are the monuments of erudition. And we get so carried away with such fleshly self-gratification that we mindlessly continue on this spiritual rampage of dividing the church without caring a whit about the trail of destruction we leave in its wake! Have we paused to ask, "What’s the point of them?"

Was it not Epictetus, the Greek philosopher who wisely remarked, "Vain is the discourse of philosophy by which no human heart is healed"? What an appropriate test for the worth of our action! I believe, if it were to be used as a scale for weighing their work, many theologians will be found wanting. A number of their erudite works would emerge as vanity.

We need to ask, "Why is then this spiritual much ado about nothing?" Is it not true that "A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers"? (Shakespeare) To put this into spiritual thought, I quote James, "shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works" (James 2:18).

Dearly beloved, the day of reckoning will come. There is a bigger question than all that we have dealt with, i.e. "What’s the point of life?" The point of life I humbly submit to you is to know Christ and to "fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Rest assured that "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12: 14).

Brethren, that which has taken place is already water under the bridge. Let EBPC resolve on this first anniversary to be "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (we) press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3: 13-14).

Think on this: "In essentials, unity; In non-essentials, liberty; In all things, charity." (Peter Meiderlin) God bless EBPC! Amen.

Comment: The above article was written by Elder Lim Yew Cheng on the occasion of the first anniversary of Evangel B-P Church (Contact information: No. 26 Jalan 22/21, Damasara Jaya, 47400, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Email address: evangelbpc@gmail.com; Website: http://www.evangelbp.com)

We heartily agree with the writer’s position that the church must always remain focused on its primary goal of preaching Christ and not be caught up with endless and senseless arguing over theological issues which are divisive, unedifying, biblically unproven and unfounded.

Life B-P Church went through the same tribulation as Evangel B-P Church. As Elder Lim Yew Cheng so succinctly asked – "What’s the point?" It is in answer to that very question that we have chosen to remain largely silent and also taken a non-VPP (Verbal Plenary Preservation) position. Non-VPP means that the pulpit, ministries and resources of Life B-P Church are not to be employed as channels for VPP causes that are divisive and unedifying.

Please read the article entitled, "A Founding Leader of the B-P Movement in Singapore Replies to a Query on the Church Constitution" as found in our church website at (http://www.lifebpc.com/ourstand/querycc.htm).

Let us focus on knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and making Him known! —CS

The Estate Management Committee (EMC) is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of:

• The buildings within the church compound – which includes the Sanctuary; the L-Block (where the Chinese Service Hall is located) and the Far Eastern Kindergarten Block.

• The fixtures such as the air-conditioning, lighting; furniture such as the chairs, tables etc; and the other facilities such as the church vans, car parks, gardens, play grounds etc

Main users of the facilities are Life B-P Church; the Far Eastern Kindergarten; the FEBC; the Sharon B-P Church and the Korean Church of Singapore.

Members of the EMC for 2007 are:

• Elder Tan Yew Chong, Chairman

• Dn Benny Chng, Member

• Dn John Ching, Member

• Dn Lee Hock Chin, Member

• Dn Seow Cheong Kiong, Member

• Mr Earle Poon, Member

The current guiding principle of the EMC is maintenance, not expansion – since with the completion of the Beulah Project, the church will have significantly more and newer facilities to provide for her various ministries.

Early this year, the sewerage pipes were overhauled. Three containers were installed to provide 5 much needed classrooms. The new lawn beside the red porch was a love gift from a church member – and met the need for a safe area for the FEK children to play.

Starting next week, a new ladies toilet and handicap toilet will be built. This will be located at what we call the Jerusalem Court – the passage way between FEK room 4 and the Church IT office. At the same time, the men’s and ladies’ toilets at the second floor beside the Greek and Hebrew classroom will undergo major repairs. Temporary toilet facilities will be arranged while the work is being carried out – this will take approximately 6 weeks.

The next major work will be the improvement of the car park beside the church where the air-conditioning compressors are located. The palm trees will need to be removed to provide additional car park space – a necessity as the car park at Beulah House will soon be gone when building works start. Maintenance of the trees was expensive due to their height – which also presents a danger if these old trees should fall. Another major maintenance work is to overhaul the roofs of the sanctuary and the other buildings.

In all these, the EMC ask for your prayers and your forbearance for the inconvenience during the work. We also seek contributions from Lifers to defray these costs; but more importantly – we welcome Lifers to join the EMC and play a part in the upkeep of God’s House. (Col 3:23) —Elder Tan Yew Chong

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