Happy New Year! We are so blest to see 2021 especially when the entire world went through?the valley of the shadow of death?last year, with the corona virus pandemic looming over our heads!
As we anticipated 2021, there were great hopes that things will resume to normalcy: for congregations to assemble in the physical buildings in full strength, for classes to resume in schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, for celebrations and feasting in the hundreds, hanging out with friends in large numbers, travelling overseas like the good old days, and so forth….
But we are told that this may not happen, and we must brace ourselves to accept this as the new norm! Such news is depressing and distressing!
In times like these,?we run to God and his unchanging word that comforts us and motivates us to press on in spite of the adverse situations! We are called to?keep our eyes on?Jesus?the Author and Perfector of our faith?(Hebrews 12:2). We are also reminded that?this world is not our home but?we are just pilgrims on a journey?that will one day end, and we will enter our eternal home! In the light of this,?let us keep our perspectives right and clear and let us run this race with hope and joy even as Christ enables us to finish our tasks well.
Our beloved 4th principal?Dr Maak Hay Chun ran this race well and finished it?on Tuesday 26 January 2021 as he entered the presence of his beloved God and Saviour Jesus Christ! He has received God’s commendation –?well done thou good and faithful servant!?Lord may you find each of us faithful too!
May I close with this song that has been ringing in my mind these past weeks?Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me by?CityAlight. The last stanza is my prayer of commitment:
With every breadth I long to follow Jesus
For he has said that he will bring me home
And day by day I know he will renew me
Until I stand with joy before the throne
To this I hold my hope is only Jesus
O the glory evermore to him
When the race is complete still my lips shall repeat
Yet not I but through Christ in me!
(listen to the whole song here)
Let’s go forth in the name of Jesus our victorious and resurrected Lord and soon-coming King! Let us continue to serve him with joy and gratitude, and with the grace that he provides daily for all our needs!
Forgetting what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.?(Phil 3:14)
