A Message from Pastor Ed Laurena
With great faith in God Who always enables us, let us welcome 2009 with the determination to live for Him. In this pursuit, we need to trust in the Lord and rely on His enduring mercies, unfailing compassions and gracious faithfulness (Lam. 3:22-23).
This 2009 is an anticipated milestone-filled year for us because we know and believe that we will again experience God’s mighty hand to work in our lives through the preaching, soulwinning, visitation and giving endeavors of our blessed Church. A victorious 2009 is truly expected as we set our heavenly vision and gear up our spiritual direction toward the fundamentals of Christian life with our new Church’s theme, “Back to Basic.”
The Lord requires us to get back to the basic things of God. These include consistent Bible reading, unceasing prayer, compassionate soulwinning, sacrificial giving and down-to-earth service for Him. Let us all enjoy His blessings as we start right, and get ready to serve Him this 2009. As such, we should consider His plan for a triumphant life this year, which includes the following: listening to His Word, learning from His will, leaning on His wisdom, loving His way, living His wishes, and looking for His wrought-victory.
Meanwhile, today’s first Sunday School lesson on “Back to Basic of Scriptures” aims to present to us the price of the Scriptures in the lives of God’s people and its basic application in our daily lives as well. Anchoring said objective is the Doctrine of Preservation that we have to accept by heart and understand by faith. The Doctrine of Bible preservation is inscribed in our KJB 1611. The God that perfectly inspired the Scriptures is the God Who promised to preserve the Scriptures perfectly – not merely its teachings, but its very words. The Bible explicitly asserts its own preservation through numerous verses, like Psalm 12:6-7, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keepthem, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Some verses are Psa. 33:11, Psa. 100:5, Psa. 111:7-8, Psa. 117:2, Psa. 119:89, Psa. 119:152, Psa. 119:160, Isa. 40:8, Isa. 59:21. In the New Testament, Matt. 24:35 expresses the doctrine of preservation, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Other NT verses are 1 Pet. 1:23, 1 Pet. 1:25, Rev. 22:18.
The aforementioned passages teach that God has preserved and would preserve His Word in every detail in each generation. This, and this alone, is the biblical doctrine of preservation. The scholars mock this position and sneeringly label it with derogatory terms such as “secondary inspiration,” but we are convinced that the Bible teaches miraculous inspiration and miraculous preservation.
It is a great job and a big responsibility for us to value the Word of God that we are holding today! Let us keep the value of our Bible by applying the following principles: We express the value of the Scripture by Reading it; We expose the value of the Scripture by Loving it; We exhibit the value of the Scripture by Living it; We establish the value of the Scripture by Dying for it.
Many of our forefathers died for the blessed KJB 1611. They were burned at the stake, tortured, and skinned alive for God’s Word. The Anabaptist believers hazarded their lives for the truth of the Scriptures. Their houses were confiscated; their little ones were killed by the sword; and their wives were raped. They were banned, blacklisted, maligned, mistreated, butchered and killed for God’s testimony. However, they never wavered as they courageously, willingly and joyfully sacrificed their lives for our faith today.
Brethren, it is easy to say that we love God, but it is another thing to show it. Let us value the Word of God as we show our love and our affection to our God and Saviour. Let us read, love, live and die for our blessed book, the Word of God, KJB 1611. Let us go back to the basic!
