Family Letter

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August 5, 2007

Newsletter – Pastor Raymond Chan

Have you ever wondered why there is “our church”, rather than there is “nothing”? This is not a philosophical debate but a rather practical one. Often the answer is historical or chronological, such as: “twenty years ago Rev SO and a bunch of brothers and sisters started…” This is of course one way of answering the question and that is what anniversaries are for. But to answer the question Biblically then, we cannot stop from considering the purpose of SFEFC coming into, and being allowed to continue in, existence.

Simply, there are actually just two possible answers: we continue to exist to demonstrate God’s blessing, or to demonstrate God’s judgment; put another way, we exist for glory or for shame.

Sure, the Bible is full of examples where a certain country and city was left in a particular state to show that God has brought judgment upon the city or country. This is to show that what they did, eventually came back to haunt them. No sensible Christian, no reasonable church would wish to play this role.

The Bible is also full of positive examples of people and churches shining forth light in the darkness, and showing the way to salvation. Most of the time, we will find in the neighborhood of those passages, phrases like “to the glory of the father.” Again, no sensible Christian, no reasonable church would refuse to play this role.

Are you a sensible Christian? Is SFEFC a reasonable church?

Pray to God to give you the ambition to live for His glory. Pray to God to lay on your heart the needs of people who have yet to know the true loving God. Pray for hearts to be prepared so that in the evangelistic meetings during our 20^th Anniversary Week in September, the Lord Jesus Christ will march in and be enthroned in those prepared hearts.

Do you want to exist for glory or for shame?