Our Mission:

To glorify God in response to His grace by making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Notice

As we are all away on our annual church camp, SMACAGOW this weekend, pleased be informed that SMACC1 and SMACC2 will not be happening in St. Mary's at 10.30 or 5pm. You're always welcome to join us at King's Hotel in Malacca, simply arrive by 10am!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

False gods and our Saviour

We have a great big God. But we do not always live as if this is true. We replace him with something else in our affections. Those are some of the reminders and challenges we were thrown this past Sunday. As we further reflect on Acts 17:16-34, here are some helpful thoughts from Tim Keller in his book Counterfeit Gods.

Keller defines an idol in this way:
"It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give...A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living."

From the Notes section in his book, he lays out a list of potential idols to which we might fall prey:
  • Theological idols: Doctrinal errors that produce such distorted views of God that we end up worshipping a false god.
  • Sexual idols: Addictions such as pornography and fetishisms that promise but don’t deliver a sense of intimacy and acceptance; ideals of physical beauty in yourself and/or a partner; romantic idealism.
  • Magic/ritual idols: Witchcraft and the occult.
  • Political/economic idols: Ideologies of the left, right, and libertarian that absolutize some aspect of political order and make it the solution, eg, deifying or demonizing free markets. [or in our context, elevating a particular political party to the position of national savior]
  • Racial/national idols: Racism, militarism, nationalism, or ethnic pride that turns bitter or oppressive
  • Relational idols: codependency, “fatal attractions,” living your life through your children.
  • Religious idols: Moralism and legalism, idolatry of success and gifts, religion as a pretext for abuse of power.
  • Philosophical idols: Systems of thought that make some created thing the problem with life (instead of sin) and some human product or enterprise the solution to our problems (instead of God’s grace).
  • Cultural idols: Radical individualism (typical in the West, making an idol out of individual happiness at the expense of community); shame cultures that make an idol out of family and clan at the expense of individual rights.
  • Deep idols: Motivational drives and temperaments made into absolutes
    - Power idolatry: “Life only has meaning/I only have worth if I have power and influence over others"
    - Approval idolatry: “Life only has meaning/I only have worth if I am loved and respected by _________"
    - Comfort idolatry: “Life only has meaning/I only have worth if I have this kind of pleasure experience or a particular quality of life"
    - Control idolatry: “Life only has meaning/I only have worth if I am able to get mastery over my life in the area of ___________"
Finally, Keller calls us back to the gospel of grace as the only remedy for our idolatry:
If we are deeply moved by the sight of his love for us, it detaches our hearts from other would-be saviors. We stop trying to redeem ourselves through our pursuits and relationships, because we are already redeemed. We stop trying to make others into saviors, because we have a Savior.

...If you only try to uproot [idols], they grow back; but they can be supplanted. By what? By God himself, of course. But by God we do not mean a general belief in His existence. Most people have that, yet their souls are riddled with idols. What we need is a living encounter with God.

...Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol... We want to love Christ so much more that we are not enslaved by our attachments.
What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Love in Hard Places - free PDF

This book by D.A Carson explores the aspects of Christian love that we find hard - loving our enemies, forgiving those who've hurt us, etc. It shows some of the important ways in which the love of Christians is a reflection of the love of God, and enables believers to develop an appropriate understanding of how to love in the hard places of life. It's now available for free as a PDF.

Not always an easy read, but I'm sure there will be much reward from your labours! =)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

On my way to heaven

Mark Ashton was for many years vicar of St. Andrew's the Great in Cambridge. He discovered he had cancer in 2008. In this article, he writes movingly of the prospect of facing death as a Christian.

An excerpt:
While physical things spoil and go dim, spiritual things grow brighter and clearer. I see my sin very clearly. I see how much it still controls my life. I think how little time I have got left to make further progress against my pride, my irritability, my grumpiness, my selfishness. I need to keep short accounts now, because I may never have time to make amends or apology in this life. The Bible speaks to me about this with ever greater authority and relevance. Each day as I open it, God speaks straight into my heart by his Word. And it tells me of what lies beyond this life. I can see the end of life. It looms over the horizon, and I am encouraged to think it will not now be long before I am there. As the distance between me and the finishing line decreases, I am encouraged to believe more strongly that I will make it. I know it is God’s work and not mine that will get me there, but it is still reassuring to know that the time is short and the opportunity to fall into gross sin is diminishing. I have less and less chance to betray our calling in some way, and I am comforted by that thought. I have always been aware of the huge depth of depravity of my own heart and the threat that poses to me every day. Now there are many fewer days left to face that threat than I thought.
Read the whole thing.

Mark Ashton went to be with the Lord this past Resurrection Saturday.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Prodigal: An Animation



The Prodigal: An Animation

Song from Sons & Daughters, Sovereign Grace Music

You held out Your arms, I walked away
Insolent, I spurned Your face
Squandering the gifts You gave to me
Holding close forbidden things
Destitute, a rebel still, a fool in all my pride
The world I once enjoyed is death to me
No joy, no hope, no life

Where now are the friends that I had bought
Gone with every penny lost
What hope could there be for such as I
Sold out to a world of lies
Oh to see Your face again, it seems so distant now
Could it be that You would take me back
A servant in Your house

You held out Your arms, I see them still
You never left, You never will
Running to embrace me, now I know
Your cords of love will always hold
Mercy’s robe, a ring of grace
Such favor undeserved
You sing over me and celebrate
The rebel now Your child


(HT: Sovereign Grace Music)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

SMACAGOW 2010

SMACAGOW 2010
not long to go!

28th-30th May
Theme: Forgiveness
Speaker: Paul Harrington
King's Hotel, Malacca

Remember, the dateline for signing up is this coming Sunday, 16th May.
For more info, you can always email smacc.info at gmail dot com

Do come, it'll be great fun!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Tracking Paul's missionary journeys

It can be hard work keeping track of Paul's travels in the book of Acts. So thank God for modern technology. =)

If you have Google Earth or a Google Earth plugin installed on your computer, you can actually trace Paul's first missionary journey on it. There are also short descriptions of each place along with the corresponding Bible verse. You can download the file and/or preview it here!

Alternatively, here are interactive maps of Paul's first, second and third missionary journeys respectively.