Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew

37 Blessed Years - A Reflection and Reminder

When birthdays are celebrated, family members and loved ones are thankful for the birth and life of the birthday persons. This holds true when we celebrate the "birthday" of a church. Thirty seven years ago, the LORD called Dr SH Tow out of Calvary B-P Church in Jurong to begin a new work in Pandan Gardens. A handful of God's people received the same call and accompanied him and the work was born.

After thirty seven long years, all of us here are the recipients and beneficiaries of years of diligent labour and hard work by our early founding fathers. They obeyed the call and the LORD used them for His glory, and we are all recipients of this blessing as we continue to worship and serve our gracious and merciful LORD in Calvary Pandan BPC (CPBPC). We thank God for them and their faithfulness. Some have been called home to glory and we remember them fondly. They have finished the course that the LORD had set for them. By the grace and mercies of God almighty, they have left us a wonderful church in which we can grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our children are carefully fed the Word of God and parents can leave them with the teachers knowing that they will be fed properly with the unadulterated Truth of God's spiritual milk, even the perfect Word of God!

These are spiritual blessings that we must not and cannot afford to take for granted in these last days which Christ has warned that before His return there will be a falling away (i.e. apostasy) of Christianity. We see the vivid evidence of this apostasy around us and around the world! 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 (KJV) "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. 5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?" Our founding fathers have done the same in teaching and warning us!

A personal testimony -- It was through CPBPC that I had my eyes opened to the deception of the last days including the errors of ecumenism, Charismatism, neo-evangelicalism and now neo-fundamentalism. These are the isms that will bring about the end time one world church of the Antichrist. If not for CPBPC I would still be languishing in the former church thinking that all was well with my soul and I was serving God, when in reality I was close to the pit of hell and helping the evil one, not realizing the deception that I was in. This is a very scary thought! I thank God for CPBPC which God used to take me out of a life of deception. I dare not imagine what would have happened if I had stayed on, believing with all my heart and in all sincerity that what I was doing was right and biblical, when in reality it was wrong and sinful and definitely against God’s will that He has revealed in Holy Scriptures.

With blessings come responsibility. God used CPBPC to deliver me out of a sad and frightful life, for which I am eternally grateful to Him. I have a debt to pay which I know I can never fully do so no matter how long or hard I serve. The LORD has been so good and gracious to me. I am eternally grateful to Him for not only saving me but also allowing me to remain on earth to serve Him. My family has also received many blessings from God through CPBPC. To be saved and to serve the most High God are the greatest blessings on earth. To serve Him as a slave is a great and high honour. But He says that we are to serve as children of God so that we will never forget to serve Him constrained by the love of Christ. "I AM SERVING MY HEAVENLY FATHER!" is the most blessed encouragement in times of tiredness and enduring stress and strain of ministry. There is so much to do and so little time to do them all. To teach and preach and help believers grow and see their lives being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the powerful Word of God is most rewarding. It makes life so meaningful and rich to know the reason for my existence and why God has saved me in Christ and put me here on earth and in CPBPC. I am very grateful and thankful to God for using CPBPC to bless me and my family in such a wonderful way!

I hope you feel the same too and that you have a similar testimony to share with God's people. [If you have, please do not hesitate to write and share for the glory of our gracious and good God.]

A concerned member penned this poignant and meaningful as well as thought-provoking testimony for our encouragement and blessing --

Thank God for preserving CPBPC through yet another year. Every year is a gift by the mercies of God. We truly cannot take it for granted because there is no preventing Calvary Pandan from falling away other than the constraining hand of God.

At our recent church camp we covered the 7 Churches of Revelation. Sadly, to me, CPBPC shows more of the negative traits than the positive ones. There are so many spiritual issues among members and hardly any can be said to be minor. The threats are not one or two or far and few, but instead very present and in my opinion, not getting better.

If Pandan were to be described with only one quality, I would say it is the faithful and uncompromising preaching of God’s Word. In fact, in recent years, the preaching has become even more pointed, intense and specific while faithfully admonishing us in accordance to God’s Word. Praise God! Yet, one would expect the spirituality of the church to increase because of this: more coming to repentance, more taking their walk and their testimony more seriously, more serving unreservedly. On the contrary, more and more people are becoming unhappy. More are expressing offence in one form or another. "Same old thing again", "Why so extreme", "Why always condemning and not encouraging", "So legalistic and judgmental", "That wine issue again", "Parent with children should stay at home issue again". It is said about Rev Timothy Tow during his final days in Life BPC that he repeatedly preached about VPP, over and over again. People thought he was going senile. His reply was simply that when one is sick, one needs the right medicine for the sickness. Many decades of faithful preaching, though solid in theology, did not prevent Life BPC from tragically becoming what it has become. What happened? I believe it was because there were many, even the majority, who secretly allowed their hearts to remain in one form of sin or another. Many rejected the admonishments over the pulpit. They became more and more distant from God and slowly they became blind to the lies. Faithful preaching did not mean it was received faithfully. Somewhere along the line, they found this place in their hearts where they thought they could quietly and comfortably exist without needing to repent and give it up. Slowly but surely, sin left not repented consumed them. To me, the split was God separating the wheat from the tares. To those who departed - blessing; to those who remained; chastisement and even judgment.

What makes us any special? Are we any different? I feel we are not. There are many similarities. To me, if not for God’s mercies, we could easily and swiftly follow suit. CPBPC can be lost overnight. Dear brethren, have no delusions about the fragility of CPBPC. If not for the hand of God, we would have faltered and failed many times over. It is by the mercies of God and prayer of the saints that He has given us yet another day to worship and serve Him in a place where His presence is found.

When we say we are thankful for CPBPC, what are we really thankful for? Brethren, for whatever reason we are thankful, if it is not in truth and obedience, we are in error and delusion. We should be thankful for the fact that we can find in CPBPC fearless men and women of God who will stand for God even if it means offending many - those who would sooner please God than any man; those who are ready to lose all in order to live holy lives; those who will not shirk from teaching us our failings for our sakes even if they will be hated for it. We should be thankful for those who will obey God’s Word completely even if they will be "labelled" for it. We should be thankful for those who care more for God’s truth than any human relationship. We should be thankful to see brethren caring and sacrificing for one another, not because of friendship or relationship but because of the fullness of the love of God in them and in turn their love for others. We should be thankful that God’s Word can still be faithfully preached even if it often means bitter medicine for us. We should be thankful that our leaders though weary and battle scarred with long years of faithful service are willing to remain steadfast despite the persistent stream of problems that appear only to increase with time. We should be thankful that all these and others of the like are still found today in CPBPC.

The battle continues to rage on without, and in my opinion, more so within. The question we should ask ourselves is what do we contribute to? Are we contributing to the furtherance of God’s kingdom or have we become a hindrance to His work. Brethren, there is no in-between. You are either for the Lord or like Peter (for a moment), you have become His adversary. As long as you are not living in His will, you are against His work, whether you know it or not. I hope we will search our hearts with much humility and may we find ourselves on the Lord’s side. And if not, we must not think it is a light thing to remain where we are.

As we reflect on the past and are filled with much thanksgiving, we must also look at the present and reflect on where we stand before God. If there are areas that need "fixing", let us turn to God and "fix" them by His grace and mercy. We need to look into the future too even as we look into the past and the present. The future is revealed to us by our heavenly Father so that none of His children will walk in darkness but walk in the light of God's prophecies. This world will be destroyed by fire (cf. 2Peter 3:5-7). What awaits all humanity is an appointment with her Creator. It will be the day of Judgement for all mankind. No man will escape or be excluded from standing before Christ and to give an answer to Him. These were the final words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to all His beloved disciples.

May we take heed as we reflect on His soon return to judge this world. Will He be pleased with the lives that He has redeemed with His precious blood and say to all of us "Welcome home and well done My good and faithful servant"?

Revelation 22:12-21 (KJV) "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.".