The burden for a day of prayer came in 1887 from Mrs Darwin R James, then president of the Women’s Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church (in the USA). She sent out a call for a national day of prayers, asking particularly for a “prayer chain”. In 1890 two Baptist women visiting the Far East saw a great need for the salvation of women in that part of the world. Upon their return to the United States, they established a day of united prayer for foreign missions. By 1919 these two national days of prayer were combined into one and it focused on missionary work. A committee composed of representatives from inter- denominational home and foreign missions planned and promoted the day, and it became known as “World Day of Prayer for Missions”. By 1927 the name of the day became simply “World Day of Prayer”.

This annual World Day of Prayer, fixed on the first Friday of March, was observed originally for the purpose of calling on the Lord of the harvest to send recruits and messengers to evangelize the world and reap His harvest in obedience to Christ’s Great Commission.

With the coming into being of the Ecumenical Movement, however, the WDP has in recent years often been used by the World Council of Churches to promote its nefarious one-world church movement without regard for spiritual unity based on the purity of the faith.
The International Council of Christian Churches has observed the World Day of Prayer from 1969. Each year a Theme is selected from the Bible.

The call to pray addresses the fundamental need of Christians to be right in their relationship with God. Hence this series of prayer meetings, commencing with tonight’s meeting. In keeping with the original purpose of the World Day of Prayer, we will be praying for our Government and people, for Christian missions, preserving the historic Christian faith and relieving human sufferings go hand in hand together in the promotion of a truly Biblical missions programme. May God revive our hearts for His work and use us mightily in the remaining years before Christ returns!
Pastor Robert would be grateful for your support and prayers as he prepares to speak on this occasion and would also like to invite and encourage you to attend this World Day of Prayer at Galilee on 2 March.

Let us come therefore to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest”.

Pastor Robert Chew

2. Bell Ringers Choir. Practices will be on Sundays from 9.15am to 10.00am.

3. YAF Workshop: Setting Priorities As Adults — All Adults are welcome to join us for this workshop on 25 Feb 12, YAF Room, from 4.00pm to 5.30pm.

4. The Singapore Council of Christian Churches will hold their annual World Day of Prayer on Friday, 2 March 2012 at 8.00pm in Galilee B-P Church. Pastor Robert Chew has been invited to speak at this forum. Remember to pray for and attend this event.

Gentle Reminders For Our Sunday Worship:
A) Come early for worship and give yourself time for quiet prayer. Help maintain reverence at all times during worship. All cell phones should be turned off or put in silent mode.
B) Please dress appropriately: avoid being a distraction.
C) Parents should help their children to be worshipful. The Church has a cry room on the mezzanine floor for parents and babies.
D) Do play your part to keep the Church clean and tidy at all times.
Thank you for your kind cooperation.

2. Sunday Bible Class Orientation and introduction to Gospel of Mark – All who have registered for this, please meet at the Main Sanctuary at 11.15 am today.

3. Bell Ringers Choir. Practices will be on Sundays from 9.15am to 10.00am.

4. Tickets to Hebron’s Musical is over-subscribed. Those who have submitted their names for tickets, please meet at the Church Office at 11.00am sharp for allocation today.

5. The Singapore Council of Christian Churches will hold their annual World Day of Prayer on Friday, 2 March 2012 at 8.00pm in Galilee B-P Church. Pastor Robert Chew has been invited to speak at this forum. Remember to pray for and attend this event.

6. Dn. Seah Kim Chwee served faithfully for several years in the Mandarin congregation and also in the church’s missions committee. It is with regret that the church accepts Dn Seah’s wish to step down from the Session due to personal reasons. We encourage you to pray for his health and his family’s continued walk in the Lord.

After warning His disciples against spending their lives solely in a chase after worldly goods, Jesus tells them what they ought to prioritize. “Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you”. Pursue God’s rule in the world, honour His name, obey His Word, and proclaim His gospel. It would not be an easy task. The world would rage against them, hate them, and even seek to kill them, but Christ tells His disciples “Do not fear”. The Father is committed, willing, and even pleased to finally give them the kingdom. The Lord’s address, “little flock,” reflects the tenderness with which God cared for His people throughout biblical history. The Old Testament speaks often of God the Shepherd caring for His sheep, both with gentleness and with a mighty, ruling arm to dispense reward and recompense. Jesus’ words must have been enormously comforting to the disciples, for they would have known their Shepherd could never fail to deliver what He had promised.

The earliest followers of Christ were in a precarious position. A tiny minority in a hostile pagan culture, they were reviled because of their allegiance to Jesus Christ. Arrested and jailed, hauled before godless kings and governors, hated, ridiculed, and even killed, the Church would not rest until her Lord returned. Two thousand years later, the Lord has not returned, and believers are still in a precarious position. The Church is pilloried in the media, ostracized in the academy, and generally dismissed by the cultural elite. In some parts of the world, Christians are still imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and even killed for their faith. Even so, there is one truth which infuses the battered Church with hope: if the world’s hostility has not changed, then neither has the Father’s promise. Through mockery and derision, insult, slander, and even death, the Father is still pleased to give His people the kingdom. The Church will finally prevail!

I listen every night to the evening news and see a near hopeless situation. The culture seems bent on careening into every evil it can devise. Abortion is entrenched, homosexuality is all but mainstream, greed, lust, and avarice run unrestrained, and neither reason nor law seem capable of stemming the tide.

In such a dark day, the Church must raise its voice not only to condemn sin, but also to hearten God’s people with the promise of final victory. If there is any sure promise in Scripture, it is that the Lord will one day return to establish His glorious reign, and His people will sit and rule at His side. Christ’s Church may be a “little flock,” but they are hardly destined for defeat!

Pastor Robert Chew
(Adapted from Biblical Reference, The Kairos Journal)

2. Bell Ringers Choir Practice. Practice starts today from 11.15 am to 12.15pm.

3. Sunday Bible Class
Teachers meeting – Today after worship at 11.15 am , 3rd floor prayer room.
Orientation and introduction to Gospel of Mark – Sunday Feb 12, 11.15 am at the Main Sanctuary. All who have registered to please attend.

4. Central Prayer Meeting – every Wednesday @ 8.15pm
This year’s devotionals will focus on a series of Parables taken from the New Testament. Do join us every Wednesday as we gather to uplift our church’s and our own needs in communal prayer and devotion.

5. There are no more tickets available for the “Give Me His Mountain” Musical by Hebron B-P Church.

6. Moriah Child Care Development Centre
We are looking for teachers with Diploma in Early Childhood Development. Please contact Elder Gary Tay at 9636 9432 for more information.

According to the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms, the chief and highest end of man is to “glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.”

John Calvin, the great reformer, wrote that man was not created for evangelism, but for worship. And John Piper rightly adds that evangelism exists because worship does not. Our God is a God of glory, and he demands nothing less than pure worship from his people. We were created for the glory and pleasure of God. We see this in the worship of God in heaven, where the elders fall down before God, crying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created (Revelations 4:11).”

We are called to give glory that is due unto God’s name (1 Chronicles 16:29). Just as we ascribe due honor to a king or president, we have to render worship that is appropriate to the Creator of the universe. However, not everyone will be capable of, or willing, to worship God. As sinful man, all of our works and deeds are detestable in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6), and our hearts have turned aside (Romans 3:11). The only manner, in which we may offer worship acceptable to God, is through Jesus Christ. And it is through him, that we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). This ought to move us towards a greater degree of adoration of our God and his works of mercy and grace. We need to respond in gratitude and engage in both direct worship of God as well as worship in all spheres of our lives such as eating and drinking (1 Peter 4:11; 1 Corinthians 10:31).

Interestingly, while we are considering the worship of God in the context of Christians, the first statement of the Catechism has implications for everyone. The subject in the Catechism is not referring to some men, or a large majority of men. But it refers to all man, or mankind as a whole. All of mankind is called to glorify and worship God. This may seem strange, for how can non-Christians worship God?

In Philippians 2:10, it states that eventually, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord. It doesn’t say some knee, or a large majority of tongues. But everyone will have to acknowledge the God who is. All men, regardless of where or who they are (Psalm 86:9). However, while all man will worship God, not all men will be able to enjoy this act of worship. For the non-Christian, the act of worship will be one of terror as C.S. Lewis rightly noted, for their worship will take place in hell. For the Christian, it will be one of comfort; the two acts of worshipping and enjoying God are inextricably linked. Isn’t this amazing?

Our end is in the worship of God. This is the end to which God has called all of us. However, as a Christian are you able to find joy in such worship? Are you able to echo the Scriptures, where “happy is that people, whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 144:15), where there is “fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11)?

by Mr Ho Zhi Wei