Remember Your Creator
In our sermon on Ecclesiastes 12, we were reminded that death is the end that we will all face. With it comes the natural process of ageing. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 12 had a word for those who were younger, that they ought to remember and respond to the Creator in the days of their youth.
We are very blessed to have a number of seniors in GBC, many of whom model for us what it means to continue to follow Jesus in faithfulness and obedience. Or, as Paul puts it in Philippians 3:14, to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. We reached out to some of our senior saints, and asked them what they would like to share with those that are younger than them in GBC. Specifically, we asked them to share:
One thing they have learnt about God that they wish for younger men and women to know, and
One spiritual habit that they wish younger men and women will develop and train.
Hearing from our older saints
Carol Leong
On who God is, Carol Leong would like us to remember that God is our Creator. She shares, “God is our Redeemer-Sustainer God. God meets you: He works in you and through you in ways that exceed your expectations.”
She also encourages us to continue seeking God and to do so in community: “Believers still face obstacles & oppositions to God's call in their lives. We still battle sin and need God to constantly realign our thinking and actions. Your walk with God depends not on your strength but on the Lord’s faithfulness. Walk together with people who seek the Lord and love His Word.”
Leong Kuan Yui
Leong Kuan Yui (who is married to Carol) also had this to share, “One crucial thing to know about God that I'd want young men and women to understand is that He has a deep love for them and desires a personal relationship. This relationship is built on trust, faith, and obedience to His Word. Ultimately, knowing God personally and living according to His Word can bring joy, purpose, and fulfillment to young men and women. By embracing these principles, they can navigate life's complexities with faith and assurance.”
On the spiritual habit? “To pray without ceasing!”
Chan Yoke Meng
Chan Yoke Meng points us to a God who is trustworthy. She shares, “He can be trusted because He is a covenant-keeping God, and He can deliver. Not only is He sovereign and in control of everything that happens to us, but God is good and wants the best for us, His children! He can see us through the most difficult and challenging experience in life.
I used to like singing the hymn “Trusting Jesus”. The first verse goes like this – “Simply trusting every day, trusting through a stormy way, Even when my faith is small, Trusting Jesus, that is all.”
When people share about their anxieties and worries, I would tell them to trust God, for in God we have an everlasting Rock (Isa 26:4).
Many years years ago, my trust in God was clearly tested. I had sleepless nights, and I could not share my worry with anyone. I was going through the book of Exodus with my Precept Class then and what impacted me most about the study was how God was disappointed and grieved with the Israelites’ disbelief in His leading them out of Egypt to the Promised Land (Num 14:11). The result of their “testing” God and not listening to Him was that they did not get to see it (Num 14:22-23; 32:10-13).
I knew my lack of trust in God saddened Him and I repented of my sin. My problem was not solved till about 2 years later, but my sleep went back to normal, restful!
I know God is trustworthy and He wants me to trust Him wholeheartedly.”
Yoke Meng also shared how she has been encouraged by the examples in the Bible of those who have displayed wholehearted trust in God. “In 1 Kings 18:19-45, the prophet Elijah triumphed over the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal, and he prayed, trusting that God will show the people that He is the true God. He told the people that “the God who answers by fire; He is God” and the LORD answered him with fire to consume his burnt offering.
The young shepherd boy David’s challenge to the giant Goliath (c.f. 1 Sam 17:31-51) is another amazing example of a simple trust in a great God. He told the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts. David‘s trust in God was solid for he knows that “the battle is the LORD’s.
Finally in Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s faith in the living God was unshakeable even when threatened to be cast into the furnace of blazing fire. They did not bow down to the golden image King Nebuchadnezzar had made, and despite the consequences, told him “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if he does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”’
Yoke Meng exhorts younger men and women to read, listen and heed God’s word regularly. There are many verses in the Bible that instruct us to do so:
“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” (Rev 1:3)
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22)
“Heed instruction and be wise.” (Prov 8:33)
“He is on the path of life who heeds instruction.” (Prov 10:17)
Kuan Yui (top row, second from left) and Yoke Meng (first row, second from right) are among the 9 faithful members that were part of the 51 chartered members at GBC’s founding. We thanked God them at our Combined Anniversary Service.
Yoke Meng reminds us: “A good definition of ‘to heed’ is to align our priorities in life according to the instructions we read in God’s Word.”
Responding as a community
There are many more in our midst who would be able to share, and we are unable to record everything in one article! But perhaps, we can ask these questions of one another, when we meet over coffee, in our CGs, on Sundays etc. If you know an older saint, ask them about God and what they have learnt about Him and through His word and trusting Him! And to the older saints, we want to hear about God and how you have learnt about His nature — His love, holiness, goodness, justice etc — through your life.
We may wonder if these conversations will amount to anything, but we also trust that God can work. As these saints have reminded us, we need one another in our journey of faith. Psalm 71:17–18 also speaks of the role that older saints have in the lives of the next generation: "O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.” Let us be eager to speak about God’s wondrous deeds and never tire of doing so, for another generation needs to hear it.