King's Scroll April 2020 Issue

The

KING’S SCROLL NEWSLETTER OF JESUS MY KING CHURCH

APRIL 2020 ISSUE

Greeting in the Name of our Lord Jesus, who is the Author ServiceTimes Sunday English Service 10am - 1230 pm The King’s Kids 11am-12.30am The King’s Generation (Youth) 1.30pm-3pm Friday Corporate Prayer Last Fridays of every month 7.30pm - 9.30pm House Fellowships 3rd Friday of every month in different zones Language Services: Sri Lanka Fellowship Every Sunday 10am - 3pm Tagalog Fellowship 1st & 3rd Sunday 1.30pm - 3pm Tamil Service 1st & 3rd Sunday 4pm - 6pm Professional Counselling Services Available - Pls call for more information.

Contact Ms Viji Torai No 77, Lorong 19, Geylang, Wing Yip Building, #05-00 Singapore 388513 Tel; 63968116 email: vijitorai@riversmedia.org

and Finisher of our Faith! (Heb 12:2) "1Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth!

2Worship the LORD with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. 3Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.Give thanks to him and praise his name. 5For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.”

(Psalms 100 NLT) The Test of Faith is Praise! It is the ability to sing to the Almighty Father and worship Him with Praises & Thanksgivings, even in the midst of challenges & dire circumstances. Even during the advent of the COVID-19 Circuit Breaker Measures and Lockdowns if it ever happens. Psalms 100 is one of the psalms that can trigger our spirit to praise God even right now. Can you just raise a Hallelujah with me now in the midst of your working from home, or doing your laundry or whipping up dishes for the family.

In a strange way, what caught my eyes as I read the 1st verse of Ps 100 is the Exclamation Mark! “!” represents favourable surprises, achievement, triumph or a significant happenings. How we wish all our lives are filled with exclamation marks! However, we know in every page of a book, there are other punctuation marks. We have commas that would mean a brief break, question marks that refers to doubts and uncertainties, full stops that could signify stoppages or “ ….” that signals a long wait. The story in a story book will not be readable, neither will it make sense without punctuation marks. In a like manner, God places commas, question marks, full stops & exclamation marks in the story of our lives so that it becomes a wholistic piece of readable masterpiece. Only when you try to understand it

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A Word From Pastor Barnabas Dear JMK Family,

For the first time in history churches around the world will not be allowed to gather for Good Friday Service and Easter/Resurrection Sunday service. It is unprecedented and have never happened before. I am just wondering is this the beginning of things to come.

How unfortunate that everyone, especially the elderly will need to rest at home and live a less active lifestyle for now.

The Prophet of God in the OT and also those in the present day has already warn us of the famine that is to come, "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land-- not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.” Amos 8:11 (NIV)

This is a very important year for us as people of faith and of the Word. We need to return to the very foundation of our faith which is the word of God. To hide his Word in our hearts.

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6:6-9) NKJV

There is an initiative hosted by one of the Anglican church in Singapore to get members to build personal, family, corporate and national prayer altars.

The word ‘altar’ occurs 402 times in the Old Testament and 23 times in the New Testament and means “place of sacrifice”.

God showed Moses the blueprint of His Temple, His dwelling place that His people could enter through sacrifice to be a house of “prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7). It was the place where the manifest presence of God would come (Leviticus 9:23-24; 2 Chronicles 7:1).

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A Word From Pastor Barnabas … Con%nue from Pg 2

The early Christians, after Pentecost, lived the altar lifestyle (Acts 2:46) and so should we. Altar language continues throughout the New Testament, showing we now have a spiritual altar not a physical one, offering up spiritual sacrifices (Hebrew 13:10-16). Indeed, if our body is the temple then our heart is the altar where we must daily apply the ultimate altar, the Cross, as Jesus said in Luke 9:23.

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19

The desired outcome from our personal and corporate prayer altars is that our lives will become more passionate and hungry for God’s presence as we hallow His name, more holy as we repent and consecrate our lives and more compassionate for others as we identify with them in repentance and intercession. Through the prayer altar lifestyle, we bear more spiritual fruit, enter more into our personal calling and destiny and become more active and effective for His Kingdom.

Prayer altars also transform the places and lands we live in by transforming the atmosphere to be full of God’s presence (joy, peace etc.). This leads to many more people coming to the Lord and brings the land (family, church, school, workplace, nation) into God’s destiny and purposes.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

• Personal prayer altars transform our life.

• Family prayer altars transform our families.

• Church prayer altars transform our Church.

• Marketplace prayer altars transform our workplace.

• National prayer altars transform our nation.

I look forward to seeing more of us coming together especially in this year of preparation to poise ourselves as living sacrifices on the altar before God.

Psalm 34:9-10 (NIV)

9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,

for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,

but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Ps Barnabas

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Be Brave 5 minutes longer

By Sis Tabitha Robinson

Hindsight

always seems like a beautiful notion. It is like an artist inhaling deep breaths to evaluate her painting after several long hours of heart work, wishing she could have done it a little differently. Hindsights are great and if we only had known to take in the laundry before we left the house, we wouldn’t have to rewash those clothes. For some of us, our hindsights were buried in deep pain of a loss of a loved one, a broken home or an unhappy marriage. Our ‘could-haves’, ‘would-haves’ and ‘what-ifs’ often frustrate us into painful regrets, self-blame and fault finding in others. It may seem hard for many of us to accept but God is never in our hindsight but always leading us into His story of redemptive insight in every situation and every circumstance.

Paul wrote in Philippians 3:8 - “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

For over two years now, I had been grasping onto the ‘what ifs’ of my material past. Although my past was laced with series of pain and heart aches of a broken home and divorce from my first marriage, but I had never really known real material or financial lack in my life. Things were given to me on a silver platter even as a child, my dad was a businessman and gave me everything I wanted including an expensive overseas education. My husband, Ashley was earning the big bucks over several years, with disposal cash laying about. Life was easy and carefree, lavish holidays, material goods, you name it and I probably have it or so I thought.

My little world came crashing down progressively as we went thru the Houston flood, Ash’s job loss and the walking thru the pain of having to pick up the pieces of our lives as a family. From 2018 to the beginning of 2020 I was living in hind sights, thinking if I could go back in time I could have done more with the spare cash I had, or I could have resisted spending thousands on another useless painting and the list went on. It was painful, it was like wishing to hold onto clouds. Little did I know though, the Holy Spirit had already began to write a new chapter in my life, He was using my tears as ink on every page and spoke to me even during the hard times of when I still longed for yesterday. Teaching me how to let go and learning how to surrender control to Him as He began the work of restoration of my heart even in the midst of my struggle and broken humanity, somehow I was able to share my brave moments with someone else who may need to hear encouragement.

Finally in 2020 February we were down to $70 in our bank, even as ash had started his own business, the payments from our client simply didn’t come through. We had been trusting God for a long time now we were in the place of reckoning. How were we going to pay the rent and feed our three kids and being five months pregnant I felt such a deep distraught in my heart. My emotions were cascading wildly, and my time of worship was a time filled with insanity before the Lord, laughing and crying, singing and being angry all at the same time. I would switch to being full of faith one day and the next I would falter into absolute despair. Yet I was unable to tell people how I felt, and share what I was going thru, the only place where I felt safe was being alone with God. During this time my greatest fear was being far away from God and my only comfort was crying alone to Christ.

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Be Brave 5 minutes longer

By Sis Tabitha Robinson … Con%nue from Pg 4

I remembered asking God questions like how many losses will You let me walk thru? We recently

had a miscarriage in August 2019 which was very traumatic for our family. For a moment I yearned to become like Olaf in the movie Frozen and melt into oblivion in the Singapore heat. Or fade away like a tree getting ready for winter, anything but to face this pain and challenge.

Humanity is always rejecting suffering and trials, yet it is only in these moments when we come face to face with the interruptions of Divine Providence When something painful comes along and

disrupts and interrupts our normal, in between our sobs and tears, it is a great opportunity to learn from it. It is time to ask God, what are You trying to show and teach me? It is a time to learn to walk deeper and trust greatly and endure with further patience because the lesson in this is just as great as the breakthrough itself. God longs to build in each of His child great faith, strength, character and endurance to run the race and to know Him and to make Him known especially in hard times.

“When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a

great deal of anxiety.” AW Tozer.

As we walked thru this time of financial challenge, the Lord walked ahead of us encouraging us to

keep walking and walk with joy and keep trusting and trust with such carefreeness. Somehow after the period of wrestling with the Lord, we had a break thru, and it wasn’t the money. We had

something even better and that is peace.

Joy started to return, we were hearing God more clearly and each day we grew more secure in the Lord and less dependent on what we have or didn’t have. One day the Lord said to me ‘Don’t live like a pauper, don’t look at your bank account, live your life as normal. I am doing a deep work of stretching your faith, do not be shaken because the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ Each day He sent sunbirds to our balcony and our family is always reminded of how He feeds the sparrow and how much more will He feed us when we first seek His kingdom and His righteousness, all will be added to us.

Indeed, doesn’t scripture say that the kingdom of God is within us? Our times of trials is the time when God longs to build His kingdom in us.

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Be Brave 5 minutes longer

By Sis Tabitha Robinson … Con%nue from Pg 5

A few days later, I received a call from Ashley to inform me that our payment has came in. He asked me if I was happy and to my own amazement I calmly said ‘I know honey, I am ok. God told me so and I will not be shaken whether there is money or no money.’ If you had known me in the past, you would know this isn’t me talking at all. A few days later another trench of payment came thru, all in all our earnings was more compared to what ash used to earn. I can see how now in our trial ‘for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.’

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when has stood the test he will receive

the crown of life, which God had promised to those who love Him” James 1:12

A few days later, I received a call from Ashley to inform me that our payment has came in. He asked me if I was happy and to my own amazement I calmly said ‘I know honey, I am ok. God told me so and I will not be shaken whether there is money or no money.’ If you had known me in the past, you would know this isn’t me talking at all. A few days later another trench of payment came thru, all in all our earnings was more compared to what ash used to earn. I can see how now in our trial ‘for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.’

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when has stood the test he will receive

the crown of life, which God had promised to those who love Him” James 1:12

Hindsight is indeed beautiful but its also stupid and futile. Regret is for the world and not for us, we've in His redemption plan for us. There is so much more I can share in my testimony but all I want to say is never, never give up my friend. Be brave for five minutes longer. In the hour of trial, our God will never leave you nor forsake you no matter how hard it is. Just a little bit more and the dawn will break.

‘Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just brave for five minutes longer.’ Ronald

Reagan.

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Life’s Punctuation Marks … Con%nue from Pg 1

from the perspective of the Author (God) will you be able to see different purposes of these punctuation marks. A comma or semi colon may well mean God is introducing a brief interval of rest to help you tie over a short term restlessness. Question marks may lead you to build new levels of faith in God or it would lead to new revelations He is opening your mind & spirit to. Or it could be a full stop that portrays the total termination of a bad habit or unholy lifestyle. All in all, by putting punctuation marks into sentences, paragraphs, chapters & pages & then piece them together, a readable novel is born! The good news is that God the Author writes good books!

Verse 3 links up the point that God is the Author of our life. It says, “Acknowledge His positions as God & Maker & Owner.” Nothing less. When He is our God, He deserves all our worship and honour and giving Him priority over all other pursuits in life! When He is our Maker, we are to accept and thank Him the way He makes us and subject to His instruction manual (the Word) to live life and walk according to the paths He leads us to walk. When He is our Owner, it just means that we do not belong to ourselves but to Him. Gal 2:20 - “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, But yet not I …..” once you become a disciple of Christ, the notion of “I” gives way to the notion of “Christ”! You lose your identity of self & gain the identity in Christ! Amen!

“Who we are” is defined so beautifully in verse 3 as “sheep of his pasture”. A fourth position of God is the Shepherd over our lives. That means He protects and provides. As our shepherd, He has prepared the best of pastures for us. Surrounding the pasture, there is likely also a boundary of fencing He builds to keep the sheep safe - from thieves, from intruders and from rodents that can spread diseases. Only stubborn sheep will stray & run out of God-given pastures to apparently “greener” pastures outside. If you are harbouring the “stubborn sheep” tendencies, please repent & run back to God’s pasture of provision and protection and stray no more!

The next thing we see in verse 4 onwards is an invitation to enter the Father’s Courtyard to attend a thanksgiving and praise party! The Gates are always open and His Courts so vast that it can holds many. Many people are just a stride away from God’s courtyard. It’s our role to get people in thru the gate of Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life. Once you are in the Courts, start praising God with other gathered there! It could be a physical gathering or a “zoom” meeting. The first person to greet and pay respect to is the Host of the house. Don’t enjoy the party so much that you forget the Host. Don’t get “lost” in your worship such that the actions and activities of worship override the devotion to the One you worship. Every Spiritual experience that brings pride in your head that you feel more spiritual than others is a wrong experience. True spiritual experience always points to the praise and worship of Jesus & Jesus Alone!

The Scriptures always reiterates that the faithfulness of God continues into the generations! Our sons and daughters are also the recipients of His blessing because of His promise & faithfulness to fulfil that promise. God is interested to show His faithfulness to the next generations!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Let’s cheer up even in this season of seeming doom, of the threat of COVID-19, of the failing economy, of fear of a financial melt down and a host of other threats and instead raise a Hallelujah to our King, our God, our Maker, our Owner, our Shepherd and our Author of the story of our life, thanking Him for all the punctuation marks and surrender each of them to Him, and you will never know, the story book of your life and mine will turn out to be best sellers in the Kingdom of Heaven! But the glory will always go to the Author! Amen!

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Eld Francis Leong

Events & Announcements

Please note the below are online meetings. “Zoom” links will be given later to facilitate your logging in to join:

1. Ladies’ Prayer Fellowship (Wed @ 10:00am) • 15 & 29 Apr 2020 • 15 & 27 May 2020 2. Corporate Prayer Meeting (Fri @ 07:30 pm • 24 Apr 2020 • 08 May 2020 • 29 May 2020

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