25th Bible Witness Retreat Participants’ Testimonies 

From 4th to 6th Sept 2024 (Wed – Fri), the 25th BW Retreat was held in Gethsemane Media Centre. 71 adults and 17 children participated in studying the theme: “God of Covenants”. While four children’s teachers – Mrs Abigail Koshy, Mrs Leanne Joseph, Miss Crayson Wong, Mrs Gracia Chew – faithfully taught the theme from God’s Word to children, Pastor Koshy expounded the Scriptures to the adults who gathered to learn about the theme. Every afternoon, the participants met together to pray. We thank God for the blessed time of learning and fellowship, which is gratefully recollected in the testimonies below.

Dominic Kwok and Beng Hwee

We are so blessed to have Pastor Koshy, who is so dedicated to feed the flock, to teach us much about God’s “Biblical Covenant” during this Bible Witness Retreat. Thank God for enabling Pastor to prepare and preach nine messages over the three days of retreat. 

We are grateful for God’s mercy and grace through His redemption work, and His patience with us as we still struggle with sin daily. It is a journey which He continues to refine us for His service. Also, we are reminded of God’s faithfulness – one such striking lesson is that we are assured that God is a Promise-Keeper. There are times we get discouraged in pleading with God daily for our children’s salvation. But knowing that He is a Promise-Keeper has helped us to continue trusting in Him! We were also touched when we learnt about the plight of the hymn-writer who wrote “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”, which is a timely encouragement for us to trust God despite setbacks and struggles. We have a sovereign God who is in control of everything – so let us hold fast our faith!

Finally, the retreat allowed us to have wonderful fellowship with the brethren, and to know them better. 

Jane Koh

Thank God for the 3 days of Bible study at the recent Bible Witness Retreat, on “The God of Covenant”. Thank God for Rev Koshy for teaching us God’s Word and for encouraging us to walk close to Him. Thank God also for many brethren who came with their children to study and listen to His Word. All praise, glory and honour to our Heavenly Father.

Dns Diana Chan

The God of Abraham be praised for the 25th Bible Witness Retreat! Indeed, Jehovah, the great I AM, is also the God of love.

Praise the Lord for Pastor’s preaching of nine messages on “The God of Covenant”. Thank God also for Dn Lok and brethren in GBWL for their labour of love in organising the Retreat. I was blessed by the messages. I have gained a deeper understanding of the meaning of covenant, how God reveals Himself through His covenant, a believer’s relationship with God in His covenant, and the attributes of God in the covenant.

The covenant of God is a promise, oath, vow, bond, agreement or commandment of God with His people. God initiates the relationship with His people. God chooses His people. God reveals Himself to His people through His covenant as the God of Redemption and Restoration. He shows His grace to us by forgiving us of our sins, redeeming and restoring us to Him by the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus Christ. Only then can God establish His relationship with His people. “I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine” (Isaiah 43:1b).

The covenant is not an assumption. It is the declaration of God. It is unilateral. It is not a two-party agreement. We do not negotiate with God the terms and conditions of His covenant. It is singularly and sovereignly administered by God. He is the great I AM. The components in God’s covenant are His promises, blessings and curses, conditions, signs and sacrifice of the blood. An example of a promise of blessing when there is obedience, is in Exodus 20:12 – “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” There is also a curse if there will be no obedience – “And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 11:28a). So, the covenant with God denotes a personal relationship between God and the believer. It is a bond, as emphasised by God in Genesis 9:15a, “And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you”.

In establishing covenants with His people, God also provided signs, as highlighted in the Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic and the New Covenants. An example of a sign in a covenant is the rainbow in the Noahic Covenant. After the flood, God sent a rainbow as the sign of His covenant with Noah, that He would not destroy the earth again with a flood. I thank God for the rainbow in that whenever I have the opportunity to see a rainbow, I am reminded of God’s mercy and grace, His assurance and promises.

The covenant of God also reveals that God is the Creator and Sustainer. He is the God of design and order, God of moral and ethical order, God of providential and personal order. I praise and thank God for His covenant between Him and me. He is “my shepherd”. He decides and directs the providential and personal order of my life. He “leadeth me … for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3b). 

Therefore, may we, His covenant people, “know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9). All glory and praise be to God!

Carolyn Koshy

I thank God I’ve attended all the sessions of this retreat, through which I’m much convicted after learning from the exposition of Pastor’s clear teaching of “The God of Covenant”. Truly, God’s covenants have been at work from the time of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament, right up to even now in our time, beyond the New Testament, until He comes to reign on earth and ushers His people into heaven. God’s covenants offer us the bond of a most loving relationship with Him in Christ; this we must trust and appropriate as our way of life. His covenant is steadfast and the solid foundation for our lives. God never lies, and His covenantal words are His oath to us. It is now up to us to confess our sins, receive by faith His salvific promises, and submit to all His precepts, including the Ten Commandments, for our blessing.

Pastor’s exposition of 2 Peter 1:3-4 has strengthened me further in God’s “great and precious promises”, because they shall be accomplished in me and all believers by our all-powerful God, who would not fail. These divine promises shall equip us in our lives to be virtuous and glorious. To encourage all of us, Pastor sang us the song with these lyrics: “Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, gives unto each day what He deems best. Lovingly is part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.”

Nathan Resuma

The 25th Bible Witness Retreat was a great blessing to me and my family. I praise and thank God for His timely provision which allowed us to attend the retreat. I thank God for Pastor who preached on the theme: “The God of Covenant”, and for the many lessons I have learned.

• I learned about how God revealed Himself through His covenants, that we may know who He is, for on our own we cannot know Him. And that God revealed Himself through His Creation, His Word and through His Son, Jesus Christ.
• I learned that God establishes His covenants with His people so that they may know Him as the Great and Almighty God, and nothing can diminish His glory. And that we can always trust Him because He always keeps His Word. Moreover, God’s covenants are revealed progressively, one after another, with Christ as the central theme.
• I learned that God’s covenants are unilateral and sovereignly administered by God Himself, which reflect His attributes and have all His perfections. God exercises authority over His covenant, and enforces its blessings and curses which no one else can do.
• I learned that God is a God of design and order, for He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and He establishes the order of creation, the moral and ethical order, the worship (or spiritual) order, as well as the providential and personal order. Truly, we cannot make our own order that is not according to God’s order revealed in His Word.
• I learned that God’s covenants show that He is gracious and patient, for His grace is evident at the inauguration of every covenant. Certainly, His gracious patience is seen in His administration of every covenant. Also, He has shown, and continues to show, grace and patience to Israel and even to all of us until the end.
• I learned that redemption and restoration are essential in God’s establishing His relationship with man. God acted with the purpose of giving us redemption through Jesus Christ, who was promised in the covenants.
• I learned about how God has kept, fulfilled, and continued to keep His promises, and how He, as the perfect Promise-Keeper, keeps all His promises perfectly.
• Finally, I learned that we, as Christians, are to respond to His covenants through prayers of confession, submission and faith in His promises. Such responses include patient endurance (as a sign of our abiding faith and submission), having strong consolation in God (when we remember His commandments), fleeing to Him for refuge, and holding fast the promises of Him (who gives all things that pertain to life and godliness). All glory be to God!

Peggy Lee

Thank you, Infinite God, for the 3 days of careful study of Your words.

Thank you, Incomprehensible God, for giving Pastor Koshy a deep understanding of Your covenants and the wisdom to explain Your promises to us. 

Thank you, Invisible God, for having progressively revealed Yourself – so that we, finite beings, can know You. 

Thank you, Unsearchable and Unfathomable God, for wanting to establish a relationship with Your people. 

Thank you, my Heavenly Father, for giving me a heart to know You as my God and for making me Your child. 

Thank you, O LORD, for giving me the understanding that You are the ‘I AM THAT I AM’ – the self-existing, eternal and unchanging God.

Thank you, Merciful God, for unilaterally and sovereignly conceiving and initiating Your covenants. 

Thank you, Gracious God, for sovereignly extending Your covenants to whomsoever You will. 

Thank you, Omnipotent God, for sovereignly exercising Your covenants, and fulfilling all Your covenants. 

Thank you, Immutable God, for being the Creator of design and order, as portrayed in all the created beings, and for sustaining them. 

Thank you, Holy Father, for making known Your Moral Order to Your people.

Thank you, Faithful God, for accomplishing Your covenants by the sending of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Thank you, Longsuffering God, for all your Grace and Patience towards Your creation. 

Thank you, Only Just God, for extending Your New Covenant to us while we were yet sinners, and redeeming us. 

Thank you, Loving God, for the many exceeding great and precious promises given by the Holy Spirit to Your people. 

Thank you, Only True God, for being true and faithful to keep all Your promises. 

My Heavenly Father, help me to grow in faith and love for You, the All-Sufficient and All-Powerful God. May I, without worry or fear for tomorrow, undoubtfully trust You to lead me in Your truth, till I reach the promised land. All glory be to the Only Great God!

Dn Lim Ah Sang

Thank God for the blessed 25th Bible Witness Retreat held recently in GMC (4th-6th September 2024). It was a “foretaste” of heaven, where 70 plus participants gathered to praise and worship God, to pray, and to learn of the many aspects God’s wonderful truths concerning “The God of Covenant”, as well as to have fellowship one with another in Christ.

This retreat serves as a good spiritual stimulus for me to be enlightened of the deep doctrines on our covenantal God – the great I AM who is sovereign and faithful in His covenants, in His perfect redemption plan for man through Jesus Christ progressively revealed in the Scriptures, and in His gracious, exceedingly great and precious promises which are “yea” and “Amen”. 

Knowing that we are the sons of the most gracious “God of Covenant”, may we persevere in the faith in these troublous times, and be faithful witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ till His soon return. 

Indeed, the good LORD be praised for sustaining and enabling Pastor Koshy in his faithful teaching of the nine messages during the retreat. Thank God also for all who have laboured and contributed towards the retreat. All glory be unto the one living and true God!