“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10a).
The deep heartfelt cry of the apostle Paul’s heart was that he may know Christ and the power of His resurrection. It should also be every genuine Christian’s paramount desire and daily pursuit.
Our initial saving knowledge of Jesus Christ must propel us to a lifelong pursuit of a deeper and profound knowledge of our Saviour. In particular, like Paul, we must desire to know the power of His resurrection.
The highest experience that Paul sought after was knowing Christ. He wrote, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Knowing Christ and His resurrection is not just having intellectual knowledge of the facts about Christ, but also experientially knowing Him in our lives and ministry. Such increasing personal knowledge of Christ must be most enthralling to every Christian.
Christ’s resurrection was the greatest display of His power that He had demonstrated during His earthly life. It proved His absolute power over both the physical and spiritual realms. According to Paul’s words in Colossians 2:15, by His resurrection, Christ “spoiled principalities and powers, … made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it”. By His resurrection, He has delivered us from the grip and bondage of Satan and his evil powers!
How thankful we ought to be this day that Christ’s triumphant resurrection power now works continuously as an active force in the life of every believer, so that he may attain spiritual transformation and growth as a Christian. We must daily pray that we will experientially know “what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:19-20). It is Christ’s resurrection power that sanctifies us and enables us to defeat temptations and trials. By the power of His resurrection, we can now live boldly, fruitfully and faithfully. Let us yield in prayer to the power of His resurrection, and lead a holy life, boldly and fruitfully proclaiming the Gospel.
Jonathan Tay
By God’s grace, I grew up in a Protestant Christian family, and from an early age was exposed to Bible stories and the Gospel, whereby I realised that I needed to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save me from my sins. When I was 10, my family was led to the sound preaching in Calvary Pandan B-P Church; while in secondary one, I underwent believer’s baptism as a testimony of my faith in Christ.
To my loss and shame, I did not take advantage of the ministries of the church to grow spiritually, but was drawn into many sins in my teenage and army years by worldly ambition, lusts and the desire to fit in with peers outside. The Lord was merciful not to leave me to perish in my ways, but He chastised me and brought me back to Himself during my university days, when I started attending Bible study in the Fundamental Christian Ministry. Though my spiritual growth since has not been without setbacks, God has continually given me a hunger for His Word, and a desire to serve Him.
I have been blessed by the preaching ministry of Gethsemane B-P Church through joining its church camps from time to time, and through listening to sermons online. While 2020 saw COVID-19 turn our usual routines upside down, it was also God’s avenue for me to receive great spiritual blessing by tuning in to Gethsemane’s online services more frequently, and even attending meetings of the Men’s Fellowship – which I would normally not have done so due to distance and timing clashes with other activities. I found myself growing spiritually through the teaching of the Word, and in strong affinity with the church’s commitment to gathering for worship, observing the sacraments biblically, and advancing God’s kingdom despite the logistical difficulties, as well as with her biblical teachings concerning roles in the family. As such, it is my conviction that the Lord has led my family and me to join Gethsemane B-P church, where I pray we will be spiritually nourished and continue to serve Him with His people.
Tay Su Ling
My twin sister and I were brought up by my mother single-handedly in a non-Christian home, having lost our father to cancer when we were 19 months of age. By the manifold mercies and provision of God, He led me to Calvary Pandan B-P Church through my secondary school friend. Since then, I thank God for the work of salvation He had wrought in my heart, and that He has not abandoned me to a reprobate mind and life. In my totally depraved condition, I would never have sought God, yet in “the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering” (Rom 2:4), God led me to repentance through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through His wonderful truths, I continue to be instructed in righteousness, to learn what it means to “yield [my] members servants to righteousness unto holiness” (Rom 6:19), and to live rightly before God. The sound preaching of God’s Word and the privilege of service have also been instrumental in my spiritual growth, and it is my prayer that God’s Word will continue to be my meditation all the days of my life.
I have been immensely blessed by the preaching ministry in Gethsemane B-P Church, and I especially thank God for the many practical instructions I have learnt from the course on “Theology of Prayer” through GBI, which have greatly helped me in my prayer life. In submission to my husband, we were led to join Gethsemane B-P Church, having been convicted in my heart also of the biblical teachings of the church, namely: (1) the resumption of worship services as soon as possible to allow for the assembly of God’s people; (2) the partaking of the Lord’s Supper biblically through God’s appointed ministers to the communicants, but to none who are not then present in the congregation; and (3) the role of young mothers as keepers at home, thereby giving themselves to the training up of children whom God has entrusted to their care, and to the Lord’s work. It is my prayer that through the preaching ministry in this church, God will make us more effective servants for Him.
Connie Ng Lai Wah
“It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22). Salvation belongeth unto the Lord, “who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace” (2 Timothy 1:9).
I praise and thank the Lord for bestowing on me His great salvation, and for His boundless mercy, patience and longsuffering towards me even though I have been stiff-necked and wasted many years living in worldly pursuits and sinful rebellion against Him. I rejoice in the assurance of Jesus’ promise declared in John 10:28 – “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” By God’s providence, I was introduced to Christianity at an early age through my aunt who took me to Sunday school, and through my education in Catholic schools.
When I started working, I joined a colleague to attend a Charismatic church and was baptised there. Despite exposure to the erroneous doctrines taught in these churches, the Lord has been very gracious and merciful in preserving me and not giving me up to a reprobate mind concerning the faith. In the later years of my life, the mercy of the Lord led me to worship in a Reformed Baptist church in Johor Bahru, and then to Calvary Pandan B-P Church in April 2017. By His grace and mercy and through the sound preaching of God’s Word in these churches, as well as the Bible study lessons available in CPBPC, I began to develop a fear of God and a renewed zeal to seek God and His Word, and to serve Him. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). Unfortunately, my ardent desire was somewhat dampened by some discouraging church matters after the homegoing of Senior Pastor Tow Siang Hwa in March 2019.
I thank God that during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, His Spirit led me to listen in to the livestreaming of worship services in Gethsemane B-P Church, and to attend some the Bible study meetings via Zoom. Thank God also for the opportunity given to me to attend the worship services held in GMC and Singpost. I have been greatly blessed and encouraged by the preaching and teaching of God’s truths delivered with apt illustrations and testimonies, as well as by exemplary lives of godliness, faithfulness and service in the leaders of GBPC which I can emulate. All glory and praise be to the Triune God!