Jesus, Our Great Hero - by Ps Daniel Yaw
 
Introduction
 
There is so much craze over superheroes today.  Marvel DC has churned out more movies than ever on the superheroes.  When we thought that they concluded with the termination of the Avengers, other heroes emerged.
I guessed that people are constantly looking for heroes for hope, and sadly, they are only wishful hopes from the movies.
The writer of Hebrews listed in a whole chapter of 11 the different heroes of faith that we can emulate who had the favour of God upon their lives.  We are thankful to them as we identify with some of them in our journey of faith.
As I was reading and thinking of this book, I came to these three verses in Hebrews 13:12-14 that point us to the greater hero – Jesus himself In Christ, It is not so much living in faith but rather the reason for our faith.  We all need this as we struggle with life on a day-to-day basis.  We are indeed making this journey that requires faith.  What is it that we have in Jesus?
 
Jesus, our helper
 
“So Jesus also suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people through his blood.”
 
This verse highlights that Jesus, our greatest hero and Savior, suffered outside the gate.  This simply meant that for the sake of our faith, he endured all the rejection and shame.  Outside the gate is a place of rejection, shame, and suffering.  He did all this for just one reason - that we might be sanctified through his blood.
His sufferings and death, his rejection and endurance of shame, were solely for the reason of our faith today.  If Jesus did not do that, we would be rejected by God and endure the shame forever. 
Therefore, when we go through such pain, we can turn to Jesus always because He had done that so that we can be sanctified – we can be made clean, be consecrated, and be empowered to pilgrim through this life.
 
Jesus, our hero
 
“Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured”
 
When we say that someone is our hero, we will emulate him as much as we can.  The writer exhorts us to do the same.  If our Master and Lord, with all his love for us, could do such a thing, should we also not do the same?  Therefore, in verse 13, there is this invitation to also go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.
I am sure each of us has a story to tell when it comes to enduring shame and rejection for the sake of our Lord.  However, our comfort is that Jesus bore much more for us.
 
Jesus, our hope
 
“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come”
 
Verse 14 gives us the perspective.  The question is, "Why would we do that?".  The one perspective we must keep is that we are looking forward to an everlasting city.  In our endurance, we will be able to enter that city with joy and victory.
We have our share of "sufferings," but we will share in his glory as well.
 
Conclusion
 
As we journey together in 2025, may I encourage all of us to make this journey, not so much with a burden on our back, but with the help and hope we have in Christ.  As we have our AGM in March, may we be thankful for the leaders who have served and pray that more will also rise to serve and lead

by Ps Daniel Yaw

Introduction
A blessed Chinese New Year to all of you.  That is my greetings to you and we do so to one another.  The usual greeting exchange is “Gong Xi Fa Cai” – it is a greeting of wishing each other prosperity.  That is not all that wrong but there is more than just prosperity or material prosperity.  It is a life of blessedness and we wish each other the favor and the blessings of God.
When a Jew enters the house of the Lord on Sabbath, he will recite the Shema which is actually found in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel, The LORD our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

The Command to Love
The above sounds like a command and rightly so.  However, among the eastern religions around Israel, loving the LORD was revolutionary.  No other religion teaches about loving their God.  Devotion?  Yes, it is so.  Fear?  Again, it is constantly demanded.  Sacrifice?  That is a requirement.  But love?  That was something strange for one to be called to love God.
The God of Israel and his covenant with his people is based on a relationship that the very foundation of that relationship is love.
If there is to be any meaning to a relationship, any lasting value to a relationship, it has to be founded on love.  This is where the God of Israel and the God of Christianity stand out.  We love because He first loved us.
That is why we hear often that Christianity is not just a religion, it is a relationship and a relationship founded on love.  I wish you love and I pray that as we love the Lord, we learn always to love one another and love the world the way the Lord loves the world and his desire to save the world.

The Command on their hearts.
What is next in the verse is found in verse 6, which says, “And these words that I command you today shall be ON YOUR HEART.”
The question is “Why on the heart?”.  I guess that is the reservoir of the greatest of emotions and motivation.  What is on your heart?  What is on our hearts determines the way we conduct our lives.
The Heart directs our Path.
Ambitions are born from the heart.  Pursuit in life is born from the heart.  Our love life is also born from the heart.  When our heart is set on something, we will pursue it with great zeal.  It may be a career; it may be a value or it may be your life partner.  Once our heart is set on one thing, we are blind to all other things.  That is why the Lord commands his word on our hearts.
As children of God, loved by God and chosen by Him, what directs your hearts?  I trust that the Lord has placed his command and the greatest of all command to love Him on your heart this year.  That in everything you pursue, it is to the glory of God.  Then you will surely be blessed.
The Heart is restored by His Word.
The other aspect that I was thinking about is what is placed on your heart.  I think many of us have many things on our hearts.  And when the heartbreaks, whatever is on our heart will fall into it.
Think about it.  When your heart breaks, if it is bitterness in your heart, what falls into it is bitterness and unforgiveness.  If it is the idea of material prosperity, then disappointment with God will fall into it.  If it is doubt, abandonment of God will fall into it.  But if it is the Word of God and His love, what will fall into it is faithfulness.
That is why the Lord desires to have us place His word on our hearts.  

Conclusion
As we begin a new year, we have done so, Chinese New Year is a refresher, let us begin to place the love of God and his command on our hearts.  God bless our hearts.
 

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.