Of late there have been a number of earthquakes shaking the region, including what we used to think as ‘safe Malaysia’. It’s not so safe now.

Then last Sunday, we had our own, not so minor, church-quake in PJEFC as Low Chai Hok brought us a couple of very strongly worded rebukes from the Lord. The elders and I accept the rebukes as of the Lord and ask the church to respond to them. (Min Chik is presently away, but he has been informed.)

One has to do with our complacency, as reflected in people consistently turning up late for the Sunday service. This, however, is only one symptom, beside many others. I don’t think it is necessary for me to give you more examples. What is more important is that we invite the Spirit of Jesus to search our hearts and to ask Him to help us overcome our complacency and to spur us on to spiritual vitality.

The other word has to do with broken relationships in the church. All broken relationships between members of the church affect the whole church; even if we think that it is just a personal issue with someone else which has nothing to do with the church. For the simple reason that this is not a club but the Body of Christ and our connectedness to one another has a spiritual dimension that affects the wholeness of the church. If you have a broken relationship with someone in the church, I urge you to please put it right. I did that with a couple of people last Sunday.

In case some of you are wondering, if there is a rift between myself and the Elders and the Board, please be assured that there isn’t any. Do we sometimes express different opinions? Of course, we do. As it has been said, if two people have the same view all the time then one of them is redundant! Differences of opinions do not have to lead to a broken relationship. Do we need your prayer to keep the unity of Spirit? Of course, we do. One of the devil’s chief weapons is to shove the wedge of disunity among the people of God: Board members against the Pastor, members against the Leadership, and members against members. Please pray for our protection and don’t fall into the devil’s diabolical trap by pitting one person against another.

This was one of the things that we prayed over at the recent Pastoral Staff Retreat as we asked ourselves two critical questions: 1. What is God doing in PJEFC? and 2. What is the devil doing in PJEFC? Have you ever thought of asking yourself these questions? Have you ever thought of asking the second question? In fact, you can answer some parts of the first question if you know the answers to the second question, because the devil does the exact opposite of what the Lord is doing. The Lord wants to bring unity to the church and the devil works to disunite us. I urge you, be alert to his evil schemes.

Thank you for keeping us in prayer. We had a wonderful, useful and fruitful time. We shared, we dreamed, we worshipped and we prayed. I don’t think I’ve gone on a planning retreat where we prayed so much. After all, this is all about God’s business and it calls for our total dependence upon Him for wisdom and insight, grace and empowerment to fulfil His plans and purposes.

Our vision, goals and philosophy of ministry have not changed, but tweaked for clarity and focus. I’ll share more with you later; after I’ve run it through with the Board. And you can expect a great year ahead in 2010 as we move in alignment under the inspiring and exciting leadership of Jesus.

PrSH