20170620 ebenezer july issue

EBENEZER JULY 2017

Acts 5:42 (NIV) Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. www.ssmc.com.my

Being with Jesus: Reading His Word

Ask Pastor!

We are fast approaching the half way mark for 2017. It is my prayer and hope that many of you are still faithfully following Being with Jesus – Reading Thru the New Testament in 2017 (RTNT 2017). I have heard many testimonies from church members whose faith and understanding have been revitalized from the daily ‘bite-size’ reading of God’s Word.

I myself have been greatly encouraged and the Word has on many occasions come alive and I have received fresh understanding and application, all Glory to Him. Even some families have started family devotion time as a result of following the RTNT 2017 material.

Some of their testimonies will be featured in this issue of Ebenezer and others to be shared later.

As for Discipleship Groups, because all of us generally are reading from the same Bible passage each day, there is much more to discuss and share, not only when DGs meet but also through constant WhatsApp sharing and chatting. Pray that this will continue and grow, that it becomes the norm not only to share what we have gleaned from reading God’s Word but also to seek clarification over difficult verses and passages.

In this respect I would like to once again make the offer that if you come across any verse or bible passage that you do not understand or appears contradictory, feel free to email me @ ssmc.pastor@gmail.com or whatsapp @ 017-3330088. I do not promise to be able to answer all your queries to everyone’s satisfaction but we are all together on this journey of life, so let’s help and encourage each other while it is still day.

All Praise and Glory to God as we have just completed our 42nd Anniversary Celebration as a Church Family. God’s servant Bob Moffitt came and gave much clarity as well as practical handles as to how best we can continue to expand and extent God’s Kingdom both in our individual lives where we live and work, as family units in the communities where we stay and also corporately as the bigger SSMC Family where we are located and tasked to be the Light and Salt for Him. He also reminded us that “to the degree/extent that God’s will is obeyed, His Kingdom will come into our lives”. It’s best summed up in the words of a short chorus Bob taught us – “The Gospel in one word is LOVE”.

Evidence of God’s continued Blessing and Favour were also seen in our Anniversary Gift Day for Missions offering. To-date as a Church Family, RM 1,389,186.80 has been given/pledged towards Missions. This is the highest amount ever collected thus far for us as a local congregation and we want to declare that it’s all about God, His Praise and Glory and nothing about us.

In conclusion I wish to encourage and urge all of us to continue to spend time each day BEING WITH JESUS – Pray, Read & Reflect, Applying and Yielding to the Holy Spirit’s promptings. As a natural consequence we can then encourage one another through our Discipleship Groups, in working out and sharing our Faith with others.

This we can do for DG Sunday, scheduled for Sun 16th July 2017.

So please start planning where you will meet as a DG and more important, asking the Lord who He wants you to invite for the gathering in a home setting, which is much less threatening for many of our family members and friends.

Lastly, SSMC Family Camp 2017 will be held in Grand Kampar Hotel from Fri 4th to Sun 6th August. This has been one of the two unique highlights for SSMC as a local church (the other being our Anni Gift Day Celebration). Please make plans to register and attend the Family Camp as it has always been a time for meeting and making new friends as well as reestablishing, strengthening old friendships in a much more relaxed and conducive environment.

We truly live in exciting times to be Christians in Malaysia. It’s my hope and prayer that you will continue your Journey of Faith on the SSMC Express with BEING WITH JESUS as our daily goal and God’s Word, the Bible as our Teacher and Guide.

In His Service Ps Dr Ng Swee Ming

Impacting the Wider Society as a Minority The early church was a small community in a world fraught with danger for Christians. They were in no state to compete with or have sway over the Roman politics, which was brutal and tumultuous with a dictator in power. However, this did not mean that the realities of the day resulted in a church closing its doors to outsiders or one that was in hiding. Instead, it sought to serve wider society by putting in place networks for social renewal.

How did they do this?

By showing love in action.

Lucian (a non-Christian) was impressed by the solidarity among the Christians. He testified that “their original lawgiver has taught them that they were all brethren, one of another… They become incredibly alert of anything … that affects their common interests.”

Eyewitnesses reported that when an epidemic struck, the populace rejected the sick and abandoned unburied corpses in their desperate attempts to avoid infections from a contagious and fatal disease. In contrast, Bishop Dionysius described how Christians held on to one another, visited those “held fast to each other, visited the sick without fear, ministered to them assiduously, and served them for the sake of Christ... many did die, after caring for the sick and giving health to others, transplanting the death of others, as it were, into themselves.”

The early Church historian Eusebius highlighted this unconditional love shown. He wrote, “Then did they show themselves to the heathen in the clearest light… When it became known, people glorified the Christians’ God, and, convinced by the facts, confessed the Christians alone were truly pious and religious.”

This was not merely a service during times of emergency, but an ongoing expression by the church: • First, the church was at the forefront of private charity. In AD 250, the Roman Church distributed alms and supported about 1,500 widows and poor and disabled persons. There was no other equivalent charity in the Roman world.

• Second, the church cared for slaves and poor people needing burial. Converted slaves were granted equal dignity and fullest rights in church. Indeed, slaves could become clergymen or even bishops. Christians extended burial services to strangers because they share a common humanity.

Undoubtedly, such care comforted grieving relatives and cultivated sympathies for Christianity.

• Third, the church provided employment and insisted that every able-bodied person must work. The church formed guilds to provide work for any brother in need. We can only admire its balanced social policy: “For those able to work, provide work; and to those incapable of work, be charitable.”

Providing a haven of peace and support amidst urban lawlessness and insecurity.

Roman cities had an average population density equivalent to that found in modern industrial slums. Given the absence of social welfare in Roman society it was no wonder that crime was rampant.

The church provided the essentials of social security and, more importantly, a sense of belonging in a city of strangers.

Neighbourhoods were transformed when neighbours were bound together not only by common rites but by a common way of life.

Editorial Picks

Admittedly, social compassion was not a virtue found exclusively among Christians, but in those days Christians appeared to have practised it more effectively than any other group: • To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family.

• To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing service.”

In summary, the church became an institution for social renewal—the new civilizing and cohesive power that could unite and care for the diverse groups of the Roman Empire. Today, the Malaysian church is perhaps in a slightly better position than our early brethren, but are we just as effective if not more effective than they were? Are we willing to bear the costs? Are we a haven for the unwanted? Do non-believers praise God because of our church?

These are uncomfortable questions we need to ask ourselves and answer honestly.

Recommended Reading: Rodney Stark. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries.

Harper, 1997. *Adpated from Dr. Ng Kam Weng’s “How a Minority Church Impacted Wider Society”, Krisis & Praxis, 2017, http://www.krisispraxis.com/archives /2017/04/how-a-minority-churchimpacted-wider-society/

Missions Week: SSMC’s 42nd Anniversary On the 19th – 21st of May 2017, SSMC celebrated our 42nd Anniversary with Missions Week. Bob Moffitt was the invited speaker for this celebration and many were blessed by what God had spoken through His servant.

Everyone is called to be an ambassador of Christ. We need to be engaged 24/7 in representing being an ambassador of God’s love because it is that love which we saw in the illustration of the early church that draws people to Jesus.

Bob is a husband and father of three (3) children and four (4) grandchildren. He is also author of many books, one of them is the book “If Jesus were Mayor”. He is also the Founder and the current President of Harvest Foundation and co-founder of Disciple Nations Alliance. He has developed and directed Christian organisations that encourage Christians to demonstrate God’s love, especially to broken people and their communities. A servant of God who has a heart for the global Church and its role in transformation was shaped by 2 years with the Peace Corps in Africa, 2-year study of Missions in Africa, Europe, and Middle East and Asia, a seminary major in missions and 12 years of ministry among inner-city youth.

Missions is not only the Gospel of spiritual salvation, it’s the gospel of God’s concern for every area of life.

We need to be demonstrating God’s concern in every area of life by serving, by loving and by the way we love is to serve. Why? Because Jesus came and the way that He demonstrated God’s love to us was by serving us willingly, humbly, sacrificially and joyfully. To be a missionary, is for us to be servants – to reflect how God loved us which was by serving us.

The seminar was well attended by over 200 participants on Friday night’s session, over 100 participants learning together on Saturday’s session and approximately 50 attended the introduction to the SEED’s project through the heat of Sunday afternoon.

The mathematics of the Kingdom is where we learned the principal lesson that what God requires of us, not just what He wants from us but what He requires of us is to give Him what we have. God is not looking for people who have a lot to give, but for us to give what we have in our hand. We often think that we only have enough for ourselves, but God says “That’s what you think, give it to Me and if you sacrificially give Me what you have in your hand, no matter how small it is, I will multiply it. And I will use that in My mission to redeem and restore the world”.

Bob reminded us the role of the church as a window. The Kingdom of God (KOG) is where God’s will is done. Our role as ambassadors of Jesus and His Kingdom, is to live in such a way, in our own private lives, that people will see the Kingdom of God when they see us – and that means obedience towards God. So one of the first criteria to be a missionary is obedience, living the way God called us to live in every aspect of our lives, in our family, in our neighbourhood, at our workplace, our church or walking down the street.

It is key for us to examine our lives in the area of balance. Are we unbalanced by focusing only on the spiritual? Or are we balanced because we are living the way God asked us to live in every area of our life.

God wants us to give Him what we have. But if we choose to hold on to it ourselves because we think we only have enough for ourselves, we not only risk losing what we have, but we are disqualified from the Kingdom of God because our disobedience shows that we don’t really worship God and that we don’t have faith and trust in Him. The discipline of love means that we need to be like Jesus, serving others so that they grow from where they are towards God’s intentions for them in every area of their life - physically, spiritually, socially and in the area of wisdom.

Finally, we now know that missions is not only for those that are specially called because we all are specially called by God. We are all missionaries.

… The Kingdom of God and Missions Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done . . .

“To the degree that I obey the will of God, His kingdom comes to my life.

To the extent that God’s will is done in the life of my family and church, His kingdom comes to my family and church.

To the extent that God’s will is done in my community and nation, His kingdom will come, and my community and nation will be healed (transformed)”

Editorial Picks

We are God’s primary agent for TRANSFORMATION! God’s plan for the church is to SERVE. Question: How is the nation DISCIPLED?

The Church as a Window Obedience to God’s commands is what God desires from all believers. Our obedience demonstrates the goodness of God’s intentions for salvation and restoration both in the future and in the present. Our disobedience creates a wall that keeps the world from knowing about God’s great love for them. The Church is like a “window” through which the broken world can see God’s intentions.

A blessed, balanced life that God intended Biblical wisdom is God’s instructions for living. We achieve the blessed, balanced life God intended when we carefully follow His instructions for all areas of life. There are three primary relationships – SPIRITUAL, PHYSICAL and SOCIAL – out of which all other RELATIONSHIPS come. Knowing and applying biblical wisdom in each of these relationships will move us toward God’s intentions for our life.

Discipline of LOVE The Discipline of Love is a spiritual discipline that is an effective discipleship tool designed to help followers of Christ practice demonstrating God’s love by serving others. The image of God is best reflected in man through sacrificial servanthood. Believers should become more aware of the need to personally reflect Christ’s character in four areas of God’s concern (wisdom, physical, spiritual and social) in the world in which they live (family, church and community).

Kingdom Math Giving God what we have.

Addition and multiplication with impact and consequences in building God’s Kingdom Seeds and Seed Projects God multiplies small acts (seeds) of obedience to extend His Kingdom. Seed Projects are a simple and effective tool that enables local churches to express God’s Kingdom in their communities through loving service. We are God’s agents for transformation (healing).

10 Characteristics of Seed Projects ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

Motivated by God’s intentions Covered in prayer Simple and short Well planned Local resources Doesn’t manipulate Outside the church Beneficiaries participate Intentionally holistic God is praised

LEAD 2017… Moving forward It was an exciting time for us! From 1st to 3rd June 2017, a few of the Chinese ministry’s core group members attended LEAD 2017 at DUMC. God was speaking to us very clearly through the speakers. I was especially thankful that God spoke to each of us the same message. Indeed it was a confirmation that the same Spirit was speaking and it is God’s business to build the church.

Striking the iron while it is hot, three days after LEAD 2017, the core group met and discussed what God has revealed to us the focus, strategies and the programmes to motivate our members moving forward in the next few years.

LOOKING BACK AT OUR HISTORY The late Uncle Lee Chee Weng started the Chinese Ministry in November, 1994. We had been focusing our mission to serve the elderly community. In 2014’s family camp, the Lord spoke to us:” You are to prepare passing on the gospel baton - from this generation to that generation we are to worship and serve the Lord.”

Since then we began to add some new and active elements in our gatherings and to train our youths to serve on Sunday worship services. We were so thankful that the elderly members embraced the changes, and they have been encouraging and covering us in prayers. This is such a great testimony of “loving one another” in His family. Allow me to quote a beautiful example. We started Cajon and played faster songs in worship services which put the elderly to tests. Some of them suffered from headache or heart palpitation when strong beats and fast music were being played.

Praise God that they did not complain. Instead they rejoiced to see young people rose up to serve.

Today, when they are not feeling well, they will move to the back of the worship hall away from the loud speakers.

Henry Chong

This year, the core group hears God’s voice very clearly, “Step out of the comfort zone in faith and start blessing others and sharing the gospel.”

From various messages by Pastor Bob Moffitt in the mission weekend, by our own “Gospel Soldier Training” course conducted

by Rev. Foo Mei Ping, and now LEAD 2017, God is speaking the same message to the Chinese ministry:＂Go out now and start blessing others”.

TAKING RISKS Chinese Ministry starts to take risk!

God used the Parable of talents shared by Ps. Bob Moffitt to challenge us. He said, “Faithful servant = Risk Taking”. Amazingly Ps. Randy Pope also emphasized the same point. He said, ”Every time when I serve the Lord, I am like standing at the edge of a cliff.

God asks me to jump and then start flipping my arms. When I obey, God will miraculously make me fly – Each success is completely God’s doing.”

Well, risk taking means you may fall off the cliff. Many questions instil fear in our hearts, “What if we hear God wrongly? What if we are treading slightly off course, would that destroy the whole ministry?

Would that put the church to shame? However, Ps. Randy Pope’s subsequent words gave great assurance and comfort. He said, “Even eventually you don’t fly - you choose to obey God and yet you fall down the cliff – Please remember this, God allows this failing experience to make you stronger and a better person.”

Praise the Lord – His faithfulness stands forever, it goes beyond our success or failure!

IMPROVING THE DISCPLESHIP TRAINING MODEL LEAD 2017 showed the weaknesses of our discipleship training model.

First of all, the training is far from being comprehensive, we focus mainly on training believers to maturity but many other areas are lacking.

What Ps. Randy Pope shared resonate within the Core group.

“Highly effective Kingdom Leaders maintain a three-fold focus: • Making disciple (Unbelief to Belief) • Training Disciples (Belief to Maturity) • Developing Leaders (Maturity to Leadership) In reality we have neither enough manpower nor the necessary resources to fully implement the three-fold focus today. However, we believe in the long haul in Christian ministry - this is the direction we will be taking for the next 5 to 10 years to come. We believe God’s will and His truth stand forever. It is God’s faithfulness together with our perseverance that build up the Chinese Ministry, He will transform us to be a worthy vessel for His use.

We also learned that the way Chinese Ministry using classroom teaching method to equip our members in spiritual truth and skills, and subsequently sending them out to fulfil the mission is inadequate. We have shortchanged the process by not putting the two critical elements, “coaching” and “supporting”, in place. No wonder we have not been effective in building up lives and reaching out to needs.

Improved discipleship model

LEAD 2017…

Moving forward

An Original Song…

Pressing On By Catherine Wong

The core group will evaluate the existing Discipleship training and the ways to run small group meetings. If it is necessary we will revamp the structure to focus on “coaching” – i.e. let a new believer follows a more matured believer by serving and reaching out together. In other words, we are moving away from “content-based” to “context-based” learning.

When “Pressing On” was re-introduced in May...

We believe this is no easy path to tread. We will encounter many challenges and distractions from the evil ones. However Chinese Ministry determines to move forward – starting with a “Paradigm shift”, then walk the journey of guarding God’s revealed truth in faith and watering each life with prayers. Prayerfully we are to challenge every member, start from the leadership to the ordinary members, that we are willingly to pay the price and intentionally walking together this road that God is leading us in unity.

Chinese Ministry is a small congregation of 50 to 60.

We do not know why God is giving us such a big blueprint. No matter how we analyse, how we look at it from different angles, one thing is for sure: this is a risk taking adventure for failure UNLESS GOD IS IN IT.

12 years ago...! After looking through some past issues of SSMC newsletter, some fragmented bits of memory returned – it had been written for our Mission Fest, held in conjunction with SSMC’s 30th Anniversary.

Our God is faithful, we may not see the full result of this blueprint but we believe “from this generation to that generation”, His purpose will definitely be realized. Our prayer is that this generation will prove faithful. We may not see the day when this plan of God is accomplished, so what? Just like Ps. Bob Moffitt said, ”The widow who offered her two copper coins has never seen the effect of her giving. But God will ensure the giving multiplies according to the principle of Kingdom Math. Whether she sees it or not, it really doesn’t matter.” In the same way, it really does not matter if this generation does not see the eventuality of this blueprint becoming a reality.

NOT A NEW THING What Chinese Ministry receives in 2017 is really not a new revelation. We see it as God’s enlightening to provide us a clearer path to achieve SSMC’s vision “Transforming lives, Expanding His kingdom”. Yes, despite of different languages, races and cultures, they will never stop us from running towards the goal set before us – SSMC will faithfully play her role in God’s kingdom, and the Chinese Ministry will play her small but important role too.

Let us love one another and pray for one another.

The one precious and dear memory I have of this song, is at the initial mulling stage. I woke up in the middle of the night, alert and fresh, “hands on the plow, no turning back” resounding in my head. This seed phrase and SSMC’s tagline, at that time, “From KSKA to Closure” set the tone and structure for the song.

Some comments on “Pressing On”…

Yes, a Word-y song indeed! (First person who gets the correct number of verses in the song, AND the text, will be rewarded!) The many verses referenced in the song speak of the foundation, the Source, for our Call – Commitment – Continuing On. The simplicity and speed of “Pressing On” reinforce the fact that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. A good finishing necessitates that one begins, and continues, with knowing Him.

Pondering on SSMC’s 42 years, I thank God for the ones who began the good work, who persevered and laboured diligently, partnering with Him to bring about many breakthroughs. They gave us the evidence that, “the ‘impossible’, He makes possible”.

When we consider that God is “Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us...”,who knows, it may be that really, we “ain’t seen nothin’ yet”!

Let’s press on, to plumb the depths of knowing Him,“...for the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits”!

A Brazilian Faces Cultural Shock in Malaysia

By Alexandre R. Fonseca

As a Brazilian guy living in Malaysia, I tend to think that many Asians may not think the way I do.

I’ve learned that to share God’s love, to understand and reach the hearts of our neighbours, brothers and sisters in Christ of another culture, we must learn how to think and see life from their eyes and sometimes go out of our comfort zone.

As a western guy in an Asian country it was, and still is hard for me to deal with some cultural customs of Malaysian. Coming from a multiracial and multicultural country where people are warm and very close to each other, I found it very different in Malaysia.

In my country, there are people from all continents of the world, most would marry and build a culture of a vast variety of faces, skin tones, hair and eye colors. But yet, we speak only one language and we are united as we share the same Brazilian mindset.

It was strange for me to learn that Malaysia has three main ethnic groups who are very different from one another.

The biggest adjustment that was hard, and still is for me is in the matter of physical contact. The only physical contact I see people doing here is shaking hands. I don’t see people hugging and kissing each other anywhere I go in Malaysia.

Hugs and kisses on the cheek are normal and common actions in our daily lives in Brazil. Every time I greet a lady in Brazil (younger or older than me) I would kiss her on the cheek. But if I am a close friend of hers, I would give her a kiss and a hug.

Men shake hands and hug as a way to show respect and love.

Men also kiss their fathers, uncles and grandparents on the cheek when greeting and when saying goodbye. Brazilians show their love, care, respect, and concern for others through these warm embraces.

It is an adjustment for me as I do not feel comfortable or free to express myself the way I wished here in Malaysia. There was once my mother greeted a lady by hugging her, and she was shock and paralysed, having no idea how to react to a simple hug.

It is hard to form relationships and friendships in Malaysia because it is hard to learn about other. To win their trust and know them better takes a longer period. In the beginning, I felt very discouraged and I still struggle to make friends and to know more about their personal lives. When I asked about their lives, the answers were very polite and sometimes superficial without much details.

People in my culture are naturally more open and easier to talk to and even share through Gospel. It is very common to meet a total stranger at the bus stop and start talking to him. Within five to ten minutes, both will know a lot from each one’s lives and will even discuss about the weather, politics, football, work, and other matters.

There are no barriers to build relationships as people are very friendly and ready to talk and share their life experiences.

In Malaysia, I learned that to show respect, young people call older ones as uncles and aunties.

Therefore, hierarchy is something very strong in Asian cultures.

Being in my early 20s, I find it difficult to relate to people on their 40s, 50s, 60s and above. To be honest, it is almost impossible to have a normal conversation in the same level with older folks. If it happens, it will be fast and brief.

I love talking with old people to learn from them and have long conversations about life. Saying that, there are no hierarchal differences between young and old people in Brazil. It makes a huge difference as older folks are more open to have talks at the same levels, share and pass on their life knowledge to the younger generations.

Overall, it hasn’t been the easiest to adapt and live in a different culture, but God is the same on every corner of the Earth and no matter how hard it can be, He will always be looking after us. And I thank Him for bringing me here and giving me the opportunity to make new friends, and getting to know all of you. It is a privilege to serve God wherever we are.