St Andrew's Church, Brunei

Date: 29.11.20 Shalom Church! Come and join us for this week's Sermon on Emotionally Healthy Series! Have a Blessed Sunday and Stay Safe! God Bless!

Firmly Established in Truth ( 2 Peter 1:12-15) 12  So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.   13  I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body,   14  because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.   15  And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. Truth. What is truth? In this day and age, the truth of God is under attack. In fact, many people no longer believe there is such a thing as absolute truth . They claim that all truths are “truths”, subjective and relative. By saying that all truths are “truths”, it demeans the power of the Gospel. This is a demonic attempt to disillusion humankind from the reality of God and Jesus Christ. Everything that Christians claim to be truth, in terms of the nature of humanity, sin and human redemption, is establ

Date: 26th November 2020 This is such a meaty passage - so much to chew on! The verses that I want to touch on are 8 -10: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. The devil wants to take us out.  I remember years ago a family member told me about a vivid dream they had.  They dreamt they were on a beach watching a lion walking.  Thinking they were safe,  they were alarmed when they realised the lion had started stalking them and cut off their way of escape.  I remembered this passage and shared it with the relative.  God was showing them an area of temptation in their life that they thought they had control over, that it wasn't suc

  #TuesdayDevotion: 1 Peter 4:1-10 Date: 24 November 2020 As Christians, we often find it difficult to avoid evil human desires and to live in a way pleasing to God. We often feel the tension between living an earthly life and a Godly life. How do we overcome this? As I meditate on this passage. There are a couple of things that I stood out for me: Jesus’s attitude going towards the cross was one of submission. Verse 1 tells us to “arm ourselves with the same attitude because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin”.   Verse 2 tells us we are to live a life of submission to the will of God and if we do, we will avoid evil human desires. But we struggle with submission, let just think about submitting to authority: your parents, your teachers and your bosses. Is it easy? The answer is no. However, as Christians, through renewing of our mind through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can submit to God’s will. The Christian idea of submission is not one of coercion but out of our l

  #SundaySermon Emotionally Healthy Series: Present to God & Present to People Date: 22.11.20 Shalom Church! Come and join us for this week's Sermon on Emotionally Healthy Series! Have a Blessed Sunday and Stay Safe! God Bless!

 Date: 21st November This passage can be difficult to read in these modern times. Verses 1 to 6 instruct wives to submit to their husbands. In today’s world of individuality and self-determination, this can initially feel like a backward step for women’s rights. Let us try to understand what Peter is telling us. The context for this passage is the early church. People were becoming new believers at times separately from their families. Some marriages would have a spouse who became a Christian whilst the other spouse had not. Peter was giving advice to women who had become Christians, without their husbands having already accepted the new faith. In the Jewish culture at the time women had no rights in comparison to men. Women were essentially owned by their fathers and then by their husbands. Wives who became Christians before their husbands were therefore in a difficult position. If a husband became a Christian, he would automatically take his wife and children into the church with him

#ThursdayDevotion : 1 Peter  2:1-10 Date: 19.11.2020 The main thrust of this entire passage of verses 1-10, is an imperative - and it reads, “Long for the pure milk of the word.” Everything in this passage supports that. It is a command to desire Scripture, to desire the Word of God. This has always marked those who have a love for God, who are in Christ. The psalmist said that the godly man is blessed because “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” He also sings that the words of God are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than the drippings of the honeycomb. We all know that, everything about a baby is wonderfully soft, cuddly and inviting, except their crying when craving for milk. This is the singular focus that draws the illustration that Peter chooses. Do we have anything even remotely like that kind of craving for the Word of God? Do we get to the place where we desire it more than anything else in life

#TuesdayDevotion: 1 Peter 1:1-16 Living in the Presence of our Heavenly Father, Son and Holy Spirit Date:17 th November 2020   Peter is writing to Christians in what is now the nation of Turkey. In verse 2 he states we are  chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of  the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. We should take note that we are in relationship with all the Persons of the Trinity. Chosen  by the Father before we knew Him, having the Holy Spirit sanctifying us, and living in  obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkled by his blood. Think about this for a moment. Is this  not amazing?! Because of the Presence of God in our lives, in verse 2 Peter gives a blessing. He says to us:  “Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” What quantity of grace and peace do you have in your life? If not an abundance, then  something is wrong! We have all three Persons of the Godhead involved in our lives. We  have access

  Date: 15.11.20 Shalom Church! Come and join us for this week's Sermon on Emotionally Healthy Series! Have a Blessed Sunday and Stay Safe! God Bless!

Date: 14 Nov 2020 False Hope (2 Kings 24)   2 Kings 24 was a sad and shocking event in the history of Israel and Judah. Judah was conquered, Jerusalem was emptied and the temple of God was plundered. Read from the perspective of the Jews. Can God's holy city and God's house be taken and defiled by the pagan enemies? Surely not. Surely God Almighty protects us. Surely, we are safe as long as we have the temple with us. Surely God’s salvation is with us!   The impossible happened. The Babylonian destroyed and plundered Judah. The only people left in Judah was the poor, those who had no capacity to rebuild Jerusalem. The question rang loud, "Where is God? And why has He not protected Jerusalem and His temple?"   One answer, it was false hope. Judah's hope was on this, 'As long as we have the temple, God won't abandon us.' Thus, the mindset 'Sins are no big deal because as long we have the temple, we have the protection.' This is fals

Date: November 12 th , 2020 James 4:13-17 reminds us of a problem many of us Christians have, and it’s something we need to change. This passage assumes that as believers, we readily acknowledge Jesus as Lord.   But when it comes to the business of daily living, we set that fact aside and function as if Jesus is not really our Lord.   We acknowledge Him in the spiritual aspect of our lives, but don’t acknowledge Him or invite His Lordship into everyday life.   We make our daily plans (or even just drift through the day), set our life-goals and accomplish our dreams without checking in with Him or waiting on Him for guidance.   Or we may pray for His blessings and guidance but not wait to listen for it.   We behave like believers in our devotional life, but like unbelievers in our daily life. James, the half-brother of Jesus, was not admonishing people for making plans.   It is what is lacking in the plans that is the problem.   If God wants you somewhere, then that’s where you ne

  #TuesdayDevotion Date:10 November 2020 What is real wisdom? In this passage, James describes two different kinds of wisdom. First, wisdom that is earthly and wisdom that is from God. How can we tell the difference? By its fruits or a person’s conduct. Earthly wisdom is characterized by envy and selfish ambition whereas Godly wisdom is a reflection of God’s nature on us: pure; peace loving, considerate; submissive; full of mercy and good fruit. As part of maturing as a Christian, we must grow in wisdom. Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Wisdom is founded upon the fear of the Lord. How do we live out God’s wisdom? We must we live a life that desires to please God and a life that is obedient in His ways. Let us tutor our hearts to apply this text into our lives and it has a lot of similarities from the beatitudes series that the church is studying together: a) First, we must be pure in heart and mourn

Date: 08.11.20 Shalom, church! Come and join us for the Sunday sermon on Beatitude Series! Have a blessed Sunday and stay safe everyone!

  #SaturdayDevotion : James 2:14-26 (Real and Living Faith) Date: 7th November 2020 In this scripture we learn that real faith is accompanied by action. James was writing to new Christians who had come from a Jewish background who had discovered salvation by faith and freedom from righteousness based on works and rituals. Here, James is warning them against the extreme thinking that they no longer needed to demonstrate their faith by any works or actions. He explains that although it is true that we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ, the kind of living faith that we have will naturally have works and actions that accompany it. If you have a living faith, you will want to demonstrate it by your actions. Otherwise, it is doubtful if your heart has been truly affected by this faith. If we really believe and understand the extent of God’s love and grace towards us, we will be so overjoyed and grateful that this love will overflow from within our hearts and become apparen