If you are interested to attend, call Ps Thomas at 98577779

There will be a meeting for the Alpha Working Group on 8^th February, Wed, at 7.30pm in the conference room.

     In the coming three Sundays we will explore what is often regarded as a dead ritual. Yes, I am talking about the Holy Communion that we celebrate on the first Sunday of every month. To some it is a highlight, a delight. To many it is just one of those things we have to do in church even though we do not understand nor see the benefit. I believe one of the main ways to root ourselves in God’s love is to understand the purpose and power of Holy Communion. Roots are important: they draw nourishment from the nutrient- rich soil to produce sap that dresses the tree in foliage and fruit. The Holy Communion is one of the major root networks that nourish the church community out of the rich soil of Christ’s finished work on the cross. My heart’s desire is for the Holy Spirit to help me communicate this faith to you, so that with all your heart, you would want to root yourselves deeply into this main channel of God’s grace and draw His power and love from it.

     It has been my longing too, to provide more occasions for the church to draw from this channel of grace. I have shared this with the Board of Elders. From March onwards we will celebrate communion on the first and third Sundays of each month. From August onwards I want to open another avenue for Holy Communion in the cell groups so that in all three times a month, members will have the opportunity to receive the blessing of the Lord. To do this requires teaching and sufficient preparation–thus this series of three sermons. I know such a change will require additional effort, patience and costs. But the blessings and spiritual growth will outweigh this, and so will the thanksgiving and glory that goes to God as a result.

     In the next three Sundays, the sermon topics will be as follows, and we will have Holy Communion every Sunday, building up to 19^th February, when we will anoint with oil the sick in our midst and release healing in His name.

SERMON SERIES: ROOTED IN GOD’S LOVE

• 5^th February – The Purpose of Holy Communion – Why does the Lord want us to have Holy Communion? Wherein lies its power, its blessing?
• 12^th February – The Practicals of Holy Communion – What is eating “unworthily” and “eating judgment to ourselves”? Who do we serve communion to and how frequently?
• 19^th February – The Power of the Incarnation: Going Beyond Ritual – how and why God uses ordinary things including bread, wine and oil to reveal his glory and power. I remember how a thought dropped into my heart. “My supernatural is not to be ignored or despised. Expect the supernatural and it will happen.” I believe this thought was from the Lord. 

Dear brothers and sisters,

Our journey of growing the church through disciple making began on January 2010 when we began to expound how the acronym of our church’s name (WRPF) captures the values we represent as a church, as well as what we want to nurture in all the disciples that the Lord has entrusted to our care. The distinctive traits are as follows: 

In 2010 we focused on developing WORLD (evangelism and missions); and PRAYER (intimacy and intercessory prayer).  In 2011, we focused on REVIVAL (gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit) and FELLOWSHIP (d0iscipleship in community). This was in accordance to the Batam retreat 5-year direction to inculcate the distinctive traits of a WRPF disciple, traits which were drafted out by a group of 20 key leaders of our church in 2009. According to this same 5 year direction, 2012’s focus would be on FELLOWSHIP; 2013 – WORLD; and 2104 – REVIVAL.

The leadership has decided that for 2012, there are good reasons to continue to follow the 5 year general direction. So the theme for this year would be “GROWING TOGETHER IN GOD’S LOVE”. The verses that anchor this theme are from Ephesians 3: 17b -21:

 ^“17 ….. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

 Let’s make this our prayer for the church in 2012. Let us nurture this distinction in our lives. 

Dear brothers and sisters,

Christmas is one of the most meaningful seasons of the year. As December beckons us, let us remember the actual poor, and the spiritually poor.

As God’s grace overflows in our lives, and His Spirit motivates us, let us put up our sails and catch the wind of His love.

December 4^th is the last Sunday for us to purchase some canned food to bless a score of poor families in the Marine Parade area. Those who want to do more can help with the distribution of these gift-wrapped hampers to them on the 18^th of December. Please give your names to Janet Chew for grouping and planning purposes. Let’s work with our brothers and sisters from the Chinese congregation.

There is also the spiritually impoverished whom, because of its eternal implications, are in an even more dire state. We want to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ through the Christmas program on the 24^th of December. Wholly conceived, developed and carried out by both young and old members from WRPF, this dramatic portrayal of God’s love will have guests glued to their seats and moved in their hearts.

So, dear brothers and sisters, continue to love one another and keep yourselves in the love of God.

What is Apostolic Passion?

The term “passion” is used to describe everything from romance to hunger pangs. I don’t know what it means to you, but for me passion means whatever a person is willing to suffer for.  In fact, that’s the root meaning of the word. It comes from the Latin paserre, to suffer.  It is what you hunger for so intensely that you will sacrifice anything to have it.  The word “apostle” means a sent one, a messenger.  ”Apostolic Passion,” therefore, is a deliberate, intentional choice to live for the worship of Jesus in the nations. It has to do with being committed to the point of death to spreading His glory. It’s the quality of those who are on fire for Jesus, who dream of the whole earth being covered with the Glory of the Lord.

I know when apostolic passion has died in my heart. It happens when I don’t spend my quiet time dreaming of the time when Jesus will be worshiped in languages that aren’t yet heard in heaven.  I know it’s missing from my life when I sing about heaven, but live as if earth is my home.  Apostolic passion is dead in my heart when I dream more about sports, toys, places to

go and people to see, than I do about the nations worshiping Jesus.

I have lost it, too, when I make decisions based on the danger involved, not the glory God will get.  Those who have apostolic passion are planning to go, but willing to stay.  You know you have it when you are deeply disappointed that God has not called you to leave your home and get out among those who have never heard His name.  If you will not suffer and sacrifice for something, you are not passionate about it. If you say you will do anything for Jesus, but you don’t suffer for Him then you aren’t really passionate about Him and His purposes on earth.

If you don’t have it, how do you go about getting this thing called apostolic passion? Is it like ordering pizza at the door in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed? Is there an 800 number to call? Or better yet, just send us your special gift of $15 or more, and we’ll rush you some passion, express delivery, overnight mail. If you’re like me, you need help figuring out how to grow this thing called passion. I am motivated by reading how the apostle Paul got it. He chose it.

Paul says in Romans 15 that it is his ambition his passion, if you will to make Christ known. It began for him with a revelation of Jesus that he nurtured all his adult life.  Paul not only encountered Christ on the road to Damascus, he kept on meeting Jesus every day.  This revelation of Jesus, and his study of God’s purposes, gave birth to Paul’s apostolic passion.

Knowing Jesus and making Him known consumed the rest of Paul’s life.  He “gloried in Christ Jesus in his service to God” (Rom 15:17).  By comparison, everything else was dung, garbage, stinking refuse. Paul’s ambition was born from his understanding that God longed for His Son to be glorified in the nations. It was focused so that the “Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16).

Human enthusiasm cannot sustain apostolic passion. When God invests His own passion in you the desire to see His name glorified among all people you must build and develop what God has given you. Four things will help:

1.  Apostolic Abandonment

Too many people want the fruit of Paul’s ministry without paying the price that Paul paid. He died. He died to everything. He died daily.  He was crucified with Christ. This strong-willed, opinionated man knew that he must die to self.  He knew that in his flesh, he couldn’t generate the revelation of Jesus; he couldn’t sustain the heart of Christ. So he died.  He abandoned his life. He abandoned himself.

We live in a world of competing passions.  If we do not die to self and fill our lives with the consuming passion of the worship of God in the nations, we will end up with other passions. It’s possible to deceive ourselves into thinking we have Biblical passions when, in reality, all we have done is to baptize the values of our culture and give them Christian names.  We will have chosen apostolic passion only when our hearts are filled with God’s desire for His Son to be worshiped in the nations.

May I encourage you, dear friend, to give up your life?  I challenge you to pray this prayer: “Lord, be ruthless with me in revealing my selfish ambition and my lack of willingness to die to myself.”  I guarantee that He will answer your prayer and quickly.

2.  Apostolic Focus

The greatest enemy of the ambition to see Jesus worshiped in the nations is lack of focus. You can run around expending energy on all sorts of good ministries, and not get one step closer to the nations.  I don’t have anything against all the projects and ministries out there God’s people do them, and I don’t question their obedience to God.  But the Church has an apostolic calling, an apostolic mission.  God has called us to the nations.  We must focus, or we won’t obey.

Focus on what?  I believe God wants a people for Himself.  Activity without a desire that God have a people for Himself is just activity not missions.  You can have evangelism without missions.  Short-term ministries are great, as long as they focus on raising up workers to plant churches.  You might say, “I’m not called to plant churches.”  Yes, you are!  It’s always the will of

God to have a people who worship His Son in the nations. You’ll never have to worry about making God mad if you try to plant a church. It seems crazy to me that people are under the delusion they need a special calling to save souls, to disciple them, and to get them together to love Jesus.  Whatever ministry you are with, you must understand one thing: church planting is not for us, it’s for God. We do it so God will have a people to worship Him!

3.  Apostolic Praying

A young man in Bible school offered to help David Wilkerson years ago when he was ministering on the streets of New York City.  Wilkerson asked him how much time he spent in prayer.  The young student estimated about 20 minutes a day.  Wilkerson told him, “Go back, young man. Go back for a month and pray two hours a day, every day for 30 days.  When you’ve done that, come back.  Come back, and I might consider turning you loose on the streets where there is murder, rape, violence and danger.  If I sent you out now on 20 minutes a day, I’d be sending a soldier into battle without any weapons, and you would get killed.”

You can get into heaven, my friend, without a lot of prayer.  You can have a one-minute quiet time every day and God will still love you.  But you won’t hear a “well done, good and faithful servant” on one-minute conversations with God.  And you certainly can’t make it on that kind of prayer life in the hard places where Jesus is not known or worshiped.  Here’s a challenge for you: Read everything Paul says about prayer, then ask yourself, “Am I willing to pray like that?” Paul said that he prayed “night and day with tears without ceasing with thankfulness in the Spirit constantly boldly for godly sorrow against the evil one.”

4.  Apostolic Decision-Making

If you live without a vision of the glory of God filling the whole earth, you are in danger of serving your own dreams of greatness, as you wait to do “the next thing” God tells you. There are too many over-fed, under-motivated Christians hiding behind the excuse that God has not spoken to them.  They are waiting to hear voices or see dreams all the while living to make money, to provide for their future, to dress well and have fun.

The Apostle Paul was guided by his passions. Acts 20 and 21 tell of his determination to go to Jerusalem despite his own personal anticipation of suffering, the warnings of true prophets, and the intense disapproval of his friends.  Why would Paul go against his own intuition let alone the urgings of prophets and weeping entreaties of close friends?  He had a revelation of greater priority, of greater motivation: the glory of God.

Apostolic decision-making starts with a passion for God’s glory in the nations, then asks: “Where shall I serve you?” Most people do the opposite. They ask the where-and-when questions without a revelation of His glory in the nations.  Is it any wonder they never hear God say “go!” They have not cultivated a passion for the passions of God.  All kinds of lesser desires can be holding them captive.  They might never realize it.

Present your gifts, vocations and talents to the Lord.  Press into God.  Stay there until you long to go out in His name.  Remain there and nurture the longing to see the earth bathed with His praise.  Only then will you be able to trust your heart if you hear God say, “stay.”  Only those who long to broadcast His glory to the nations have the right to stay.

If you have apostolic passion, you are one of the most dangerous people on the planet.  The world no longer rules your heart.  You are no longer seduced by getting and gaining but devoted to spreading and proclaiming the glory of God in the nations. You live as a pilgrim, unattached to the cares of this world.  You are not afraid of loss.  You even dare to believe you may be given the privilege of dying to spread His fame on the earth.  The Father’s passions have become your passions.  You find your satisfaction and significance in Him. You believe He is with you always, to the end of life itself. You are sold out to God, and you live for the Lamb. Satan fears you, and the angels applaud you.

Your greatest dream is that His name will be praised in languages never before heard in heaven. Your reward is the look of pure delight you anticipate seeing in His eyes when you lay at His feet and the just reward of His suffering: the worship of the redeemed.

You have apostolic passion!