Devotion Time – Being in the Presence with God

We are all busy people. Busy with work. Busy with studies. Busy with church duties. It has been said that the way of Satan is “Noise, Hurry & Crowd”. As gregarious people, we fear solitude. We fear silence. We dread stillness. Our fear of being alone drives us to noise and crowd. Technology – TV, MP3, mobile phone – useful for building human relationship, when over use can be a hindrance for building divine relationship.

But at the heart of the Christian calling is solitude, the way to a meaningful relationship with God. Through the years, I learn that the way to God is “Silence, Stillness & Solitude”.

It all began when I first became a Christian. The word – QUIET TIME – I was told by my follow-up leader is (1) Pray, (2) Read a Bible Passage, (3) Meditate on the passage, (4) write a personal application, (5) Close in prayer.

Call it quiet time, devotional time or even personal time, it is that moment to be treasured and seek the Lord while He may be found. Gradually, time for prayer includes time for listening also. Listening? Listen to who? We were taught that prayer is conversing with God. In life, we know that “People hear what you say. But true friends listen to what you don’t say” Solitude is like that. There is no word needed. It is the moment with God without words, the calm assurance of “being with God”. There is no need to “doing for God”.

Whatever ways your devotional method is, it doesn’t matter. It is that time you wait upon the LORD. That is the essence of being in the presence of God.

Do share with each other what you learnt from your devotional time!!

Do not let the busyness of life lure you away from the presence of God, like this poem:

No Time

I knelt to pray but not for long
I had too much to do
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They'd laugh at me I'd fear.

No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to souls in need,
But at last.....there is time to die.

I went before the Lord,
I came, I stood with downcast eyes,
For in His hands God held a book,
It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said,
"Your name I cannot find,
I once was going to write it down...
But never found the time."

(author unknown)

Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. (Isa 40:31 NASB)

Mark Lim

Heard a good Sermon lately?

What do you think about our church Sunday Sermons? So so lah !

Can you remember last Sunday sermon? Probably can.

Like what? About growing up and babies thingy.

For many of our church-goers, Sunday sermons would probably be the only intake of the Word of God. So preaching the Word of God is extremely important and a high calling. Preachers must remember that people have a very low retention of the message. So, it is the onus of the preacher to make his message clear, simple and relevance to the hearers. Just what make a message click with the congregation?

(1) The title
This is the first thing the congregation will see in the bulletin before the preacher starts his sermon. The title must prepare the hearers and trigger them to want to know what the sermon is about. Title likes “Growing Up” is a good title, it reminds me that I need to grow up (spiritually) even before I hear his message. It is short (2 words) and easy to remember (not hard difficult pronunciation words with unknown meaning). Title like “Donkey work & Excess Baggage” only reminds me of a rubbish collector at the airport check-in counter! I don’t know about you, but that was what I imagined when I read the title of the sermon. Clearly, such title has no bearing to his message at all, after hearing the sermon. Perhaps a better title would be "How God chooses leaders". Try re-writing a title if the title doesn't sound suitable.

What about sermon without a title?

It just shows that the preacher is not prepared at all!! He doesn’t know what to let the congregation focus his message on. If you encounter sermons without a title (which happens once in a while), challenge yourself to give a title after you had heard the sermon. Titles must be short and easy to remember. Title should tell you what the message is all about and also trigger you to act on the message. Sometime a question can be a good title, which I use quite often.

(2) Sermon Outline
All good preachers have a sermon outline. Excellent preacher prints it out for the hearers. This is the skeleton of the sermon, without which the sermon cannot stand. It just collapse and the congregation will find it difficult to follow. I always give my sermon outline to the congregation, but sometime it does not appear in the bulletin (to my dismay). Sermon outline must be easy to remember. If there is no sermon outline, try to write it out yourself as you hear the sermon. Good sermon hearers write good sermon notes. During my student days, one of the hallmark of a first class honour engineering student is good note-taking. Train yourself to do this and you will one day progress to be an excellent Bible student, teacher and preacher.

(3) Illustrations
Illustrations are windows to the sermons. They give light and illuminate the message so that hearers can understand what is preached. Most often, it is the illustrations that linger with the hearer long after the sermon is forgotten.

(4) Applications
All preachers must tell the hearers what to do after hearing his sermon. They must build a bridge (from the text) to make the sermon relevance to hearers (in their 21st century circumstances). Do make an application after each sermon. For me after hearing “Growing Up”, my application is to continue writing on this blog to help those interested how to grow up. I actually wanted to give up on this blog already!

Remember to reflect on the sermon throughout the week!

Can you remember the previous Sunday sermon? Wow! Difficult lah.

Can you remember the 4 points of hearing a sermon? Title; Sermon Outline; Illustrations; Applications.

Great!!

Jas 1:22 (NSRV) " But be doers of the Word, not merely hearer who deceives themselves"

Mark Lim

Growing in the Word of God

Two components that are indispensable for Christians to grow spiritually are prayer and knowing the Bible. Let’s start with the Bible. The Bible is the written Word of God (2Tim 3:16, 2Pet 1:20). Jesus Christ is the incarnated Word of God (Rev 19:11). So the primarily way to know our Lord and Saviour is by dwelling into the Bible. There are 5 ways to do this:

1. Hear (Rom 10:17) - sermons, CD, internet, …
2. Read (Rev 1:3)
3. Study (Acts 17:11, Ezra 7:10)
4. Memorise (Psa 119:9,11)
5. Mediate (Psa 1:2,3) - quiet time, devotion, personal time …

It has been said that:
After 24 hours you may accurately remember
- 5% of what you hear.
- 15% of what you read.
- 35% of what you study
But you can remember 100% of what you memorise.

Trying working on all these aspects of knowing the Bible.

Prayers and Word are integral of the Christian life:
Jesus said this (John 15:7) - "If you abide in me and my Word abide in you, ask whatever you will and it will be done to you."

Mark Lim

Can a genuine Christian lose his salvation?

Bethany P Church English Service is now studying the Book of Hebrews. So it is appropriate to pop out an age old question. Can a (genuine) Christian lose his salvation?

I had a conversation with a Polytechnic Christian friend some years ago at Downtown East, Pasir Ris. He seems to be doing well in life. After some casual talk, I asked, “Which church are you worshipping in now?”

We were in the same team in the Polytechnic Navigators. We occasionally went evangelism together, brought others to Christ and participated in many Christian activities.

“I am no longer a Christian. My wife is a devout Buddhist.” (Silence for a while)

As I bade farewell to this long time friend, thoughts continued to linger in my mind for many days. I honestly believed he was a genuine Christian. Would he come back to Christ one day?
If he doesn’t, is he going to Hell? Is there then really an assurance of salvation? I was fearful for myself. If my friend, who seemed so zealous for God can call it “quit”, what assurance is there for me that it would not happen to me also, maybe not marriage but some other life issues? “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul?” Didn’t Jesus Christ said that “he who endured to the end will be saved, (Matt 24:13)” which mean those who don’t would not be saved?

After seriously wrestling with all these questions with no convincing answers, I decided to sign up for the graduated diploma class in Singapore Bible College. Three and a half years of studies have taught me to be more careful and circumspect in reading the Scripture. Study has trained me to look beyond mere words but the context, circumstances and historical situations which shape the writing of Scriptures. The availability and access to Christian resources is a major advantage of being alumni of Christian college.

So back to the very important question for us Christians who are still on this earth: Can a Christian lose his salvation? Or, will my friend go to heaven, if he dies without coming back to faith in Christ?

Ask a Methodist, and his answer will be, yes, a Christian who deny his faith in Christ and die without returning to Christ will lose his salvation. Heb 10:26,27 – “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”. That raging fire is Hell as in Rev 20:14 “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.”

Ask a Presbyterian, and he will say no, a genuine Christian will never lose his salvation, because Jesus Christ promises us in John 6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” In John 10:27-29, Jesus said that none of his sheep will be snatched away. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.” If a Christian fall away never to return, then that Christian is not a real sheep. So my friend is not a genuine Christian after all!!

Ask a Baptist, and he will also say as the same as a Presbyterian that a true Christian will not lose his salvation. But if a true Christian fall away never to return, then he will still be saved (and enter heaven) but, he will loose all his rewards and receive a stern rebuke from the Lord. (1Cor 3:15) “If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

Sound confusing and Christian disunity? What do you think? Share your thought!

Mark Lim

Equipping The Saints

Ephesians 4:12,13 (NRSV)

To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.