FCC Concerns All posts

Something Better
更美好的事

on January 2025

By Rev Daniel Yaw

Introduction
A new year is dawning as we come to the end of 2024. We welcome a new year. We welcome the latest and I pray that it will be something better.
We often wish each other a better day, a better week, or a better year ahead. We sincerely do this because we hope for the best. Sometimes, our wishes come true, and sometimes, they don’t.
As we enter the new year, we celebrate also a new theme for the church – “Chosen, Changed, and Convey.” The theme tells us that we are first privileged to be chosen by God to be his children – sons and daughters of God. Then it tells us of the power of God in our lives in the changes that are taking place in our hearts and our lives, as we submit ourselves to His working. Finally, it tells us that our responsibility and is to convey the wonderful things that God has done.
As we enter this new year, we closed last year with something that we are all familiar with – a new resolution for the year. However, before we even do that, let us consider what God has in store for us in our lives, as we dwell on the new theme.
I would like to share with all of us a better promise that God has given us. It is stated in Hebrews 8:10b, "I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
How is my relationship with God special today? Looking at the verse above, I reflected with thanksgiving in my heart that knowing our God has become special – one that we will know. It is internally planted and externally known.
This new thing that God has to offer to us is indeed different and better compared to the Old Testament.

The Past = a covenant external
God said here in Hebrews that he is doing away with the old covenant and replacing it with the new. What are the old and the new then? If you noticed that when the old covenant was given, it was held in fear. The people appealed to Moses that he should go and speak with God as they would not want to for fear of death. God is to be distanced from them. But all those are going to be changed.
The breaking of the covenant means that God will forsake them as well as obedience brings blessings while disobedience brings curses. That too is going to change.

The Present = a covenant internal
God said that He will put the law in our hearts and God will be our God. What is different in the present is the dynamic and vitality of our relationship with God.
The law will be put in our hearts - with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit will enable us to love God and be obedient to him.
The present promise is that God will be our God and we are his children. A promise that God will not leave us nor forsake us. The sense of belonging is pronounced clearly that we shall be God’s people – belonging to God, precious in His sight. God will seek all to protect and preserve His people who are made up of you and me. Different as we may be, yet similar in our redemption – that we all know God.
This present promise gives us a push that we come before God with confidence and faith that God is our God today.
In verse 11, the writer tells us that we need not even tell each other to “know God” because we all do know him.

Conclusion
May the year 2025 be a year to reflect our position in Christ – that He is our God and we are His people. May it be a year of readiness to live a life of obedience to His will. May it be a year of sweet relationship with God, in humility and in trust. Blessed new year.

The King And The Priest For This Christmas
圣诞节的君王与祭司

on December 2024

by Rev Daniel Yaw

Introduction

A very blessed Christmas to all of you. Each time we come to this part of the year, our usual greeting exchange is, “Wow, time flies, and we are coming to the end of another year.” Indeed, so. So, how has the year passed, and what will it hold for us in the coming year?
Things change and time flies – yes, but something will always remain unchanged, and time will stand still one day.
As I was reading from the book of Hebrews, these verses struck me as Jesus Christ, our Lord, of whom we celebrate Christmas during this time, that he is someone who will remain the same and time will stand still in the world, FOREVER.
Hebrews 7:1-3, “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God… He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.”

The King We Have

What am I looking for in God? As I served Him, I still look at the God I "pursue" after. In the words of King David who said, "One thing have I asked the Lord and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and behold his beauty and inquire in His temple.” (Psalms 27:4)

That pursuit is really to take hold of God and know him. What do I know about this God?
These are two pictures presented here. The King speaks of Sovereignty and Rule. I must seek a God who will rule in my life. A reliable king. A king who is adored. In these verses, we see a few things about this King:

The King of Salem (the king of peace). He brings to us the comfort needed, peace in a world of tribulation. Lately, we have our troubles, the loss of a loved one, the trouble of family woes, and the need for comfort is high. This Christmas, as it brought peace to Israel and the world, this same King brings peace to us. Even the angels announced, “peace on earth….”, and this king is the king of peace.
The King of Righteousness (v2) as his name suggests. He brings justice and he acts justly. He has done so in the way he deals with sin (he paid the price) and with sinners (he loved and showed mercy). Christmas is the coming of God whose name is Yeshua (Jehovah Saves!)
The King Forever (with no beginning, no end). His throne is secured and we don't have to worry about changes in rule and character. Every change of government and ruler, there will be changes. Many times, we are disappointed with those changes. It is not so for the King we have in our lives.

This is the King that I pursue after. Melchizedek is but a picture of the Son of God.

The Priest We Need
Then this next picture is that of a priest - the mediator between God and man. Today I live with the peace that I am reconciled to God having a priest who stands in between and paves the way to God's presence.

He is the priest of the Highest God. He is both God and the mediator between us and God. What more can we ask for a reconciliation we have? I am assured constantly of my peace because of Him, my high priest.
He is the priest forever. Yes, another element of the priest where time “stands still” – forever. That does not change and my status does not change.

Conclusion

May this Christmas be furnished with this thought “forever”, the king we have and the priest we need. Blessed Christmas to all of you

Gleanings From The Psalms
诗篇中拾穗

on November 2024

by Rev Daniel Yaw

Introduction

As we enter into November, I was thinking about preaching from the Psalms. What caused that decision is that Psalms are songs packed with emotions and exaltations. Why read the Psalms, why preach from Psalms?

A Freedom to express
I believe one of the many elements we read in the psalms, is the freedom of expression. I realized that the psalmists make no reservations when it comes to the expression of one’s emotions. In the Psalms, we feel with the writer, emotions of sorrow, expressions of joy, exhibition of anger sometimes, and even enquiring of things that are confusing and mind-boggling when it comes to life.
It tells me something about the Psalms – that God gives us full permission to express how we feel towards life and people and direct those feelings to God. There is no embarrassment nor apologies when it comes to expression.
They are very much like songs today that we hear and sing. Songs express our joy and disappointments in life. The beauty of it all is that it is expressed so poetically.

A Faith exhibited
Yet through all the emotions and expressions of one’s emotions, we see that the Psalms are finally directed to God who is great and good. All life’s circumstances, perplexing as they may be, finally end in praise to God. This is because God is ultimately in control and he brings understanding.
How often, do the psalmists fret over life and then end up giving praise to God as in Psalm 37? While it begins with disappointment, hurts, and even sins, it ends up in faith through quietly trusting God, confessing our sins, and giving Him all the praises due to Him.
The movement of the psalms is from fear to faith, from disappointment to devotion, from confession to consolation. We must begin reading the psalm to see this movement and end our questionings to faith.

A Life integrated
Another element of the Psalms is that it is an integration of mind, body, soul, and spirit. Our journey of faith is about being ministered to the whole being. Our challenges and struggles have to do with our minds, our bodies, our soul, and our spirit. We come to life’s bumps in all these areas and the psalms integrate all of these. It addresses the confused mind, the weak body, the troubled soul, and the lethargy of our spirits. The Psalms with all the freedom expressed, points to these elements at different times which we can all identify.
Jesus in the gospel says that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength. Loving God in that manner is to bring our whole being before God and acknowledge that He owns them all. The psalms teach us how to worship God with our whole being.

Conclusion
Not meditating on the psalms is to miss a great part of our life of worship to God. May I encourage you all FCCians to read, meditate, teach, pray, sing the Psalms, and make them the psalms of your lives too. Stay blessed always.

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We Are Priests
我们是祭司