Beulah House has served us well since the Lord bestowed it upon Life B-P Church in April 1990. It has been a blessing to those who use it and even seen the salvation of souls. However, because of the age of the buildings and a severe termite infestation the premises have been left in a disused state for the last 15 months.

Good stewardship requires us not only to make it usable once again but also to maximise its use for God’s kingdom. Think of all the possible spiritual gains that can be made in saving more souls, building up God’s people and training more labourers for the Lord’s harvest when it is fully utilised!

Some may say that God does not need buildings to accomplish His work on earth. It is true that in and of themselves, buildings are nothing but lifeless physical objects. But since the time of Adam God gave man the mandate to subdue the earth and use his dominion over it to glorify Him. Noah was commanded to build an ark for the saving of lives from perishing in the great flood. Constructed from gopher wood, it served God’s purpose of protecting its precious cargo from the winds and waves for 1 year and 10 days. Solomon was commissioned to build the Temple of God at Jerusalem. Made at great expense from hewn stone and cedar wood, it served God’s purpose well as Israel’s only place of worship and sacrifice for 380 years.

When it is completed, the new Beulah House building will likewise serve a useful purpose in God’s Kingdom. Utilising the full allowable plot ratio of 1.0, it will add more space to relieve the severe congestion and acute lack of space that we are now enduring at No. 9 Gilstead Road. Although our Sunday School has seen a good attendance of over 400 the present allocation of space for classes is so tight that there is no room left to open more classes even if we need to do so. Our Chinese service has been crying out for space to have their Sunday School classes. Our service choir has no place to practise singing and has resorted to using the homes of two choir members living nearby. Our church office has already reached bursting point.

The list goes on and on, but this will suffice to show why we must proceed to start building. When inadequate space hinders the work of God, it is time for God’s people to hear the call to arise and build! Isaiah 54:2 – "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." And when God marvelously directs and provides the needed resources for this work, then let everyone respond to the call willingly.

By God’s grace all the preparations for the Beulah project have been made: The detailed plans have been drafted and submitted to the authorities for approval, tenders have been called, and most of the funds have been provided. We now stand at the threshold of building the new Beulah House, trusting the Lord to provide the remaining amount of $1.5 million within the time it will take to complete the work. We are in a similar position to Nehemiah and the Jews as they began to rebuild the ruined walls of Jerusalem. Let us learn five useful lessons from them that may be of help to us:

4:6 – "So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work." The most important phrase in this verse is the last one: The people had a mind to work. This means that they were fully committed to doing the work. They had the desire and firm determination to press on with it and were prepared to make all the necessary sacrifices for it. For instance, they worked in shifts. When it was not their turn to work, instead of going somewhere to lie down and rest, they took up arms and kept watch for signs of enemy intrusion!

We too must have a mind to work. But it is often difficult to find members who are committed to do God’s work and are willing to make some sacrifices for it. Commitment is the main ingredient needed to build up a strong church. We must first be committed to Christ, as our Lord and Master. We should also be committed to obeying His Word that commands us to spread the Gospel, build up new Christians, and minister to one another’s needs. And we must be committed to the church that God has put us in, to fulfill its God-given aims and objectives. If everyone does his or her part to meet the needs of the church and to pray for its ministries and projects, it will thrive and prosper.

This principle can be seen in what Nehemiah wrote in 4:1, "We builded the wall" (also in verses 6, 9 and 21). Nehemiah had realized that the task of building the wall could not be done all by himself. He persuaded the other leaders to work together with him. He filled them with the vision until they all shared it and committed themselves to it, saying, "Let us rise up and build" (2:18). Even the unique method of building the wall illustrates unity – the wall was divided into 42 sections, and all sections of the wall were built at the same time, each section assigned to a family or group to work on.

As we build the new Beulah House, let us work together in unity. Let us build a good team spirit in Life Church where everyone has a role to play in God’s work. Endeavour to serve Christ together, pray together and even to endure hardness together. There will always be heartaches and difficulties in the Lord’s work. These things must be expected. But there is strength to overcome them when these challenges are faced with a spirit of unity. Yes, there may even be some strong differences of opinion at times, but for the sake of working together in unity, we must be prepared to lay them aside and move forward!

The Jews who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem were faced with serious challenges. Hostilities began when their enemies expressed scorn on their whole project (2:19). When the work was underway they hurled insults at the Jews (4:2,3) and even conspired to attack them and sabotage their work (4:8).

But these attacks never took place. Why? Because the Jews took all the necessary precautions to prevent them. They armed themselves with weapons for defence, and carried their weapons while they were building (4:18). They even devised an alarm system using trumpeters positioned at strategic parts of the wall, to rally the Jews to the point where they are attacked.

These measures must have been inconvenient to implement. And some may have wondered if all that inconvenience was necessary at all. Sometimes this is the reason why we fail to take precautions: We do not feel that it is worth making the extra effort. We must be convinced that prevention is better than cure. It is always good to have measures that will help to prevent problems from happening, rather than to deal with the problems when they come.

In the matter of project finances this means having proper checks and balances. Regular financial reports are important. Maximum accountability must be carefully maintained by the church at every stage of a multi-million dollar building project. Another useful preventive measure is the maintenance of good communication. To prevent needless anxiety and speculation, the congregation must be kept informed of the progress of the work with regular updates.

4:9 – "We made our prayer unto our God." The result of this prayer is recorded 6 verses later – "God had brought all their counsel to nought" It is God’s work! And as we do His work we need to depend very much upon Him for everything – for direction, for motivation, for power to serve, and for facing problems.

This is why we have our weekly church prayer meeting every Tuesday night. But how many of us attend the church prayer meeting regularly? Please make an effort to come for our prayer meeting, where we pray for one another as well as for the work of building God’s kingdom in Life Church. The church can only move forward on its knees!

In 4:14, we see Nehemiah doing this quite well – "And I looked and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, Be not afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses." Then in v.20, after giving instructions to the Jews, he ended with the words, "Our God shall fight for us." What inspiring words these are – full of conviction and encouragement!

If you have the spiritual gift of encouragement (Romans 12:8) now is the time for you to begin to use it well. Even a little word of encouragement you give can be a great help to God’s work in Life Church!

I trust that these five lessons will be of help to us as we begin to build the new Beulah House. Let us arise and build! —CS

IN THIS SURVEY of the books of the NT, we will learn how the New Testament got its name and why there are four gospels instead of one. The events from Christ’s birth to Paul’s martyrdom will be traced with maps and pictures on a timeline to provide a historical framework.

For the epistles the background, purpose, summary and key concepts of each will be explored. There will be lessons from the pastoral epistles on how a local church is to be organized, and answers to questions like, "Who wrote the epistle to the Hebrews?" and "Was James’ teaching on salvation different from Paul’s?"

Our walk through the NT will climax in the sublime visions that John recorded in the book of Revelation!

1) Catechism Class. Please be reminded that there is no Catechism Class today.

2) Missions Report on Kenya. There will be a report with PowerPoint slides by sister June Tan at the Tuesday night prayer meeting (18 Sep).

3) Library Opening Hours: 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month, 7.30am to 7.55am. Every Sunday, 12:15 - 12:45 pm. There are about 3,000 Christian books for all ages!

Preaching appointment: Rev Seet at Thai Service, 4.00 pm. Rev Wong at Kota Tinggi Sunday School 5th Anniversary, 1.45 pm.