"I was glad when I was told, "Let us all gather in the House of our Lord." "For this year would see us commemorating the years - fourscore no less - of the True Jesus Church in Singapore.
The gladness was similar to what I always felt before any Spiritual Convocation. Yet, once again, as time inched forward, the joy in my heart was steadily buried beneath a mass of mess.
The joy of awaiting was gradually replaced by the worries of the days and the stress of work.
In His ever-merciful manner, slowly, yet gently, the Lord pushed us on. With sermons, with exhortations, with reminders; we all received the Word and we fasted and prayed. The fervour of the brethren could be seen in the prayers of faith and with that faith, we believed that the Lord would hear us when we cried out to Him: "Incline Your ear towards our supplications!"
"Dear Lord, our feet have been standing within the gates of your New Jerusalem, yet only You know if our hearts have entered Your holy sanctuary."The Heart, the Heart! Where does my heart lie? With the glittery, banal worldly charms?
Or the
glorious,
blessed worship in Church?
Our hearts are deceitful and fickle. At once we can be both reverent yet sacrilegious.
We proclaim we are His children, yet we spurn Him with our secular insolence. Nevertheless, we need to endeavor for the upward goal of completeness.
Lord, we desire to come back to the heart of worship, because it is all about You, Jesus. It's all about You, dear Lord.
We pray for our hearts to turn back to You as we seek Your delight.
"Your Church O Lord, is built as a heavenly city, compact together, united in fellowship."And we gather in one accord, as One household of Christ. We are aware that in You, there is no east or west, no Jew or Greek, no slave or free.
For You told us before that in Your perfect Jerusalem, all of us are Your precious lambs.
All of us were handpicked by Your tender nail-scarred hands.
"Here the tribes of the Lord go up, to revere You, to offer up the sacrifices of thanksgiving."For You O Lord, have been our Spiritual Rock through the 80 years of history. Our songs of ascent rise up to You and we offer the firstfruits of our lips. Accept our offerings and may the incense be a fragrant memorial to You our King.
We come to bow down at Your feet knowing that our alabaster flasks are not nearly enough. What we pour out is the song of praise :
"Joyful Joyful We adore Thee, God of Glory, Lord of Love!"
"Thrones of judgment were set there, the thrones of David's lineage"
And we lift our eyes to you, we turn our eyes upon you Jesus. We look full in Your wonderful face. And suddenly we see that the things of this world have grown dim. For you have healed our sight. For you have shined your light. Today we see Your glorious Light revealing the things that matter and causing our eyes to see things beautiful.
"Pray for the peace of Yerushalayim, and make those who love You propser"80 years is but a twinkle of God's vastness. For God sees His everything and every-time.
80 years we have grown with His guidance. And today we stand before Him as a family, a body, a flock, an army of Christ. We have taken up the shield of faith and gripped the sword of the spirit. We have been adorned by You O Christ. The peace of Jerusalem shall prevail according to Your will and in our capacity, we shall pray for it to be sustained. We shall go on with the cross of the Lord. Standing tall, we see His Banners go! As we sing our Amens, Lord let Your glory be magnified by an infinity!
The Spritual convocation and 80th commemoration of TJC in Singapore has reached the shorelines of my heart.
"For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek Your good."It is time.
