Dear BPCWAians, We thank God for a time of rejoicing together at God’s goodness upon BPCWA as we celebrated our church’s 33rd anniversary last week. The elderlies and the young ate together as the covenantal church family gathered together, received an exhortation from God’s Word, and ended off with a meal to celebrate the occasion and close the Lord’s Day together. On a separate table sat the little children in our church – what part will they play in the history of the church in future years? What does Christ desire of us as a church? Let us be reminded from 2Cor 11:2 “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”. The key point is that as a church, we must have a deep desire for BPCWA to continue to be faithful in the future till Christ comes.

The responsibility of the leaders – to be jealous over you with godly jealousy. In the Greek society during the New Testament times, it is said that certain persons would be assigned to young women to prepare them for marriage. Above all, this person would be responsible for ensuring that the girl would be presented to the eventual bridegroom as a virgin. The person would be held highly accountable and he would be considered to have failed miserably if along the way he failed to watch over and keep her chaste, resulting in the lady not being a virgin when presented for marriage. Along the same vein, God has given to the Apostle Paul a great responsibility to present the Corinthian church as a chaste virgin to their Saviour, Christ. As a pastor, that is my responsibility to BPCWA too. Anyone serving in any leadership capacity in church must also have this as a clear objective too. It is for the reason that we want BPCWA to be pure when Christ comes for His bride at the rapture. At any time that Christ comes, be it today or many years from now, will BPCWA be a pure church for Christ when He returns for her? It is my deep, earnest, daily prayer for BPCWA that we would still be faithful. Surely Satan will not spare us by continuing to attempt to introduce false doctrines, worldly practices, just like there were in the Apostle Paul’s times. I hope that we will never bring in anything that will be impure into BPCWA – in our music, in our theology, in our practices, our worship and in our ecclesiastical and personal associations. We must not do carnal and worldly things because we must want the church to be pure as a chaste bride to be presented to Christ when He comes. We must want to stand firm regardless of what other churches do. Let us not fail our Lord.

The responsibility of worshippers – live as espoused to one husband. The church is made up of people – including you. Whether the church is pure or not depends on you. No matter how hard the leaders and the people who are serving want to keep the church pure, it depends on whether you want to be pure. Will you resist? How can we be pure? Well, let each of us live according to the Word of God in our personal walk in every aspect. Let each one of us live as a chaste virgin that has not been tainted in any way by the ways of the world – both in doctrines and practices. Will you say, “why must I live like this or like that?” when it is clear in the Word already? Or will you desire to want to know more about how to be as pure as you can be as elderlies, teenagers, working adults, students, as a family, as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children? Will we all say that we love our Saviour and want BPCWA to be pure when Christ returns? To the young ones, you are the next generation of BPCWA. Don’t live for yourselves. This is a church anniversary, and the church is your covenantal family. Every single person and family contributes towards the purity of the church.

Our one goal as a church – to be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ. You  are not obeying man, your leaders, or the pastor. You are doing al of this because of Christ. We sang “O God our Help in Ages Past”. Why did God keep us for 33 years? Not so that we can keep having anniversary dinners but rather so that we could be pure and faithful till He returns. It is all because of His goodness, His protection and His help. Let us not throw it all away by beginning to be impure. Will we be here next year? How will we be in terms of a church when we celebrate our 34th or 44th anniversary? It depends on how zealous and deeply we desire our personal walks to be pure. We must do it because we love the body of Christ. We love the Head. Christ, who is the Head of the body. Church is not just a place to have fun. It is a place for us to live as a testimony to the world for Christ. The moment we fail and refuse to be pure in doctrines and practices, and do not practice Biblical Separation, we will weaken our stand for the truth. If so, God will not be pleased to use us for failing to be loyal to His truth in doctrines and practices. If BPCWA becomes an impure church, it will be useless to your children in future, and to Christ’s work. For the sake of Christ, let us desire to be pure.

As we have passed yet another milestone in our church history, let us be very thankful to God for His watch over us for 33 years. What is the best way to show our gratitude? By truly living what we sung at the dinner – O Jesus I have promised to serve you to the end. Serve in purity till the end. 33 years is not a short time. And if so, greater still is our responsibility that we will not fail Him in the years ahead. It is not a time to rest. The enemy that has been vehemently attacking His church over the last 33 years will certainly continue his attacks. Unless we have the same purpose and goal in unity of hearts, we will not stand, but we will succumb and be a casualty instead. Please pray daily and do our part so that BPCWA be found a chaste virgin when Christ returns for His church.

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor