St Andrew's Church, Brunei

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot get what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Have you been in a situation when you are with someone and all they want to do is fight? Whenever they are around, there is restlessness and disruption. Have you felt like this yourself, when you are unhappy, discontented and irritable. N

3 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. 3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restl

In our Today’s daily reading, the Writer of this book talk about favoritism in Church and at the same time he talks about how God sees the favoritism and as a kingdom people how God is expecting us to treat people among us. We all are belongs to His Kingdom   In the Gospels we read that Jesus built his kingdom with power; he healed the sick, raised the dead, gave prophetic insights, fed thousands of people miraculously, and set captives free. Living a ‘kingdom life’ means we live every day with a sense of urgency, a sense that the Kingdom of God is advancing. In Luke 10 we read of when Jesus sent out the 72. He told them to heal the sick and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ The 72 went, saw amazing things and returned with joy because of what they did in his name.    Likewise, the Kingdom is close to us, it is around us, and it is advancing. There are no Differences Even though we come from different background and belongs to different races, yet the bibl

How often does God get blamed for bad things that happened? On the other hand, when good things happened, did He get all the credit? Some people are quick and fast to push the blame onto someone else (even onto God) when any major disaster strikes. For example, with the current covid pandemic that started in Dec 2019. After 20 months, this covid virus is not beaten yet but rather it continues to rage through many countries worldwide causing a lot of strain on different countries’ economy and affecting people’s livelihood. How many people has blamed God for allowing this to happen? This is the same when we go through trials and temptations, we questioned God and asked Him, “Why? Why me?” We have a tendency to put the blame on God when we go through difficulties. In today’s bible reading passage, James is telling us not to blame God when we go through any temptation. James 1:13 – “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.”” Why? Simply because God cannot be tempted and nor do

Exhortations If you have been following the devotions you will know the first twelve chapters, we have been told, again and again, that we live in the new covenant. Jesus is once for all. His sacrifice, His priesthood, His suffering and death is once for all: once for all men, all sin, all time! No other sacrifice is needed. Chapter 13 starts a whole new section where we Learn about how you and I need to respond. We are being watched. We are being watched by God, of course, of how we live for Jesus. And, the world is watching us too. This week the author will reiterate the requirement for believers to have confidence in their church's leaders (v. 17), always submitting to their authority. It is God who ordains the leaders of the church. Hebrews doesn’t say, "Obey when it seems good to you"? it mentions no qualifications; it just says obey and submit. This is part of God's chain of command within the church. On the other hand, it is also mentions that leaders should ha

 Hebrews 13:1-6 has to 2 connections. 1. Loving and hating. It calls us to love correctly and hate correctly. Ÿ Love fellow believers as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Ÿ Love the strangers by caring for them. Ÿ Love the prisoners (those who are mistreated) by remembering them. Ÿ Love your spouse with sexual purity.  Ÿ Hate sexual sins completely and stay far away from them.  Ÿ Love contentment (know God loves you and takes care of you). Ÿ Hate covetousness (greed) and never love money wrongly (idolatry). 2. Both the grace of God and the fear of God are the foundation to loving and hating correctly as in Hebrews 12:28-29. "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."  The grace of God and the fear of God  are never opposing, liken to the two sides of the coin. Where there is proper understanding of grace, it manifests i

We all know what trouble feels or looks like. Whether it’s because of the struggle from our own sins or the sins of others against us, or from living in a world stained with tears, shame or hurt; no one really escapes from suffering. Trouble is painful and often, the pain becomes so intense that it is all we see or talk about. Have you ever been there yourself? In the midst of all the pain, we may begin to wonder whether God has stopped loving us – and that thought in itself brings the greatest pain. After all, if God really did love us, he wouldn’t allow us to suffer, would he? In Hebrews 12, the author directs us to look away from our troubles and doubt it creates and to look up to “Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith” (Heb 12:2). He has already done everything necessary for the father to welcome us as his own. With this, we can confidently believe that he continues to love us – even amid our troubles. When we look to Jesus, what do we see? A Savior who knows by experienc

 Good evening. Apologies for the late post. However, if you missed the service, here is the link to the recording of the live service. May you be blessed and encouraged today. Thank you for joining us. Please stay safe.  God bless you.

The author of Hebrews refers to our Christian faith as a race. We are to run with endurance and perseverance. Anyone who has done medium to long distance running will automatically understand what this means. There will be moments in the run where we want to give up but we press on because our focus is on the finish line. Our focus is to finish the race. In fact, anyone who has come through any difficulties in life will know what it means to endure and persevere through the pain.  Remove distractions Just as a runner removes items that are unnecessary in a race because it will be a distraction because even a gram of extra weight can be distracting. Imagine running a race with jeans and a jacket. You will be too busy thinking about how uncomfortable the jeans are and how hot the jacket is making you feel.   We need to remove it altogether. We are called to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles our walk with God. In today’s culture, there are so many

I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me. Save me, Lord from lying lips and from deceitful tongues… … Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war. (NIV)   Have you every been confronted for hypocrisy? What did you feel and how did you respond to it? Many years ago on a mission trip, I was asked by one of the leaders who came with me what I thought about my country. This was a trigger topic and so I started ranting and complaining about the poor administration, the apparent discriminations and lack of freedom. At the end of these rants, the leader looked me in the eye with sadness and said, “You better repent! You are a Christian leader and ought to love your neighbours . How is it that you hate the country that the Lord has placed you in?” Being confront by truth (in love) was never comfortable especially when it revealed my deep-rooted hypocrisy. I have professed my love for God and people often, but wh

Hebrews 11:8-16 Believing in God’s Promised Land In Hebrews chapter 11 the writer first describes what faith is (v 1-4). From verse 5 onwards, he gives examples of people who have shown great faith in their lives, in order to provide us with examples of how to live by faith. Verses 8 to 16 describe Abraham and Sarah’s faith in God’s promises. The details of the story are described in Genesis 12. Abram was called by the Lord to leave his land and his family to travel to an unknown place that God promised to give to him and to his descendants. Abram obeyed God and took his wife Sara, and his nephew Lot. He should not have taken Lot because he was commanded to leave his family, and he and Sara made some serious mistakes along the way which led to serious consequences that you can read about in Genesis chapters 13 to 16. Nevertheless, God was merciful to Abraham and kept his promises to him. He made a covenant with Abram to make him the father of many nations, and He renamed them Abraham a

 Saturday Devotion, 7th August 2021. Hebrews 11:1-4 Live by faith 11 Now faith is the [a]substance of things hoped for, the [b]evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the [c]worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks. Hebrews chapter 11 is about faith. Just a few verses before our passage, the writer to the Hebrews quotes God Himself in chapter 10 verse 38: “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” We are made right with God when we put our faith in Him to cleanse us of our sins, to save us from hell and enable us to enter heaven when we die. But God wants more than that. He does not wish us only to d

26  If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,   27  but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.   28  Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.   29  How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?   30  For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”   and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  31  It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.   When I read this passage the Question that comes to my mind when is God angry? Sin is what God is angry about. It means that he has made a provision for escaping from his anger, the sacrifice of his Son in the place of sinners. The love

This passage talks about how the sacrifice of Jesus both sanctifies us and is completely sufficient for us as well. His sacrifice sanctifies us. The writer teaches his audience some truths concerning the differences between the earthly priests and God’s holy priest, Jesus. He relates that “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices”! And in fact no matter how many times the priest stood and did the same sacrifice repeatedly, it “can never take away sins”! However, “when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Jesus did not have to stand and then offer himself repeatedly, as his earthly counterparts had to do! How marvelous to learn that one can depend upon the work of Jesus “once for all”! Interestingly, the writer then ominously makes reference to the fact that “Since that time” of his sacrifice, Jesus “waits for his enemies to be made his foots

Good afternoon, church! Let me ask you this question - How to you see life? What lens do you use? Today sermon touched on the lens you and I must trained to have. Have a blessed Sunday, church! Stay safe. God bless. ------------------------- Stay connected: Facebook Account: https://www.facebook.com/st.andrews.parish.bsb/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/standrewschurchbsb Website: sacbrunei.org WhatsApp: +673 820 6850 ------------------------