You can check out Sivin’s snazzy sermon Prezi here.
Of course, no celebration is complete without the BLC Family enjoying a meal together. We loved the delicious food catered from our neighbors – Lubuk Bangku D’Cabin Cafe. It was delicious! They’re right opposite us – so feel free to check them out during the week.
Have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone!
We will be celebrating Christmas with a simple and meaningful service tomorrow morning, 10am, 25 Dec 2016.
We are looking forward to having our artist friend Komeil live paint during the service while others present carols in sign language. Pastor Sivin will also finish up his Advent and Christmas sermon series with, “Christ’s Presence In The Shadows.”
We will then have lunch together after service, with delicious food catered from our neighbors – Lubuk Bangku D’Cabin Cafe.
You and your loved ones are, of course, invited and welcome to join us. All are welcome!
One of BLC’s blessings is having Komeil as a BLC Family member! He is a talented artist (check out his Facebook page here) and musician.
During our 16th anniversary celebrations last week, Komeil drew us a special illustration for our bulletin cover. Here he is explaining it in his own words (slightly edited for clarity and grammar):
I think the best title would be ‘Yeshua’s Prayer’.
The idea of the moon and its reflection is to express the relation between earth and heaven. The original verse reads, “…on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s when I started to think… “On earth… Why shouldn’t God’s will be done? As perfect as it is in heaven… I draw a perfect moon on earth (below) where Jesus stands, praying.
The moon above is resonating: God is listening. We know how to speak softly, but we may need to learn how to listen softly as well. God listens… God’s heart is soft… He is softer than water… He walks on water…
The moon bellow is the perfect moon… Our perfect God… He would not be our Saviour if He did not become flesh.. The moon bellow is a perfect moon… God’s will on earth shall be so perfectly done that this heaven, the one on earth will shed light on the entire universe.
These are my interpretations as one viewer. Everyone can read the painting in a different way.
Please join us tomorrow, Wednesday, 10 Feb 2015, at The Father’s House, Bangsar Lutheran Church, at 8:00pm for our Ash Wednesday Service, to mark our journey into the season of Lent.
We will be meditating on Isaiah 58:1-12:
True and False Worship
58 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel[a] of their sins! 2 Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. 3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’
“I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. 4 What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. 5 You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord?
6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. 7 Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. 9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! 10 Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. 11 The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. 12 Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent… a season marked by stripping away the non-essential and the unimportant, by listening in quietness to the groaning of all creation as it writhes in sinfulness, by reflecting on our own sinfulness and mortality as well as on God’s gift of forgiveness and life eternal which comes through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
We will hear the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” and we are so marked with the dust of ashes. The non-essential is stripped away. The unimportant is removed. In this act, we finally confess that all our finery, our clothing, our possessions, our abilities — all that we think that makes us who we are — is not at all who we are. We are only dust, and we stand as like beings before the Lord.
Please join us next Wednesday, on 10 Feb 2015, at The Father’s House, Bangsar Lutheran Church, at 8:00pm for our Ash Wednesday Service, to mark our journey into the season of Lent.
We will be meditating on Isaiah 58:1-12:
True and False Worship
58 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel[a] of their sins! 2 Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. 3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’
“I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. 4 What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. 5 You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord?
6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. 7 Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. 9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! 10 Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. 11 The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. 12 Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent… a season marked by stripping away the non-essential and the unimportant, by listening in quietness to the groaning of all creation as it writhes in sinfulness, by reflecting on our own sinfulness and mortality as well as on God’s gift of forgiveness and life eternal which comes through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
We will hear the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” and we are so marked with the dust of ashes. The non-essential is stripped away. The unimportant is removed. In this act, we finally confess that all our finery, our clothing, our possessions, our abilities — all that we think that makes us who we are — is not at all who we are. We are only dust, and we stand as like beings before the Lord.
Following the season of Christmas which ends with Epiphany this Wednesday, 6 Jan 2016, we now enter into Epiphany season.
During this season, we will embark on a sermon series exploring the theme of “Messiah Made Known“.
The church calendar recognizes the season of Epiphany from January 6 until the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday which is celebrated as the Transfiguration of our Lord. Epiphany season explores several principal themes: the revelation of Christ to all nations, Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan, and Christ as the light of the world.
The colours of the season are white (a colour associated with the festivals of Christ and suggesting gladness, joy and light for the day of Epiphany), used the first week after the Epiphany when the Baptism of our Lord is celebrated, and the last week of the season of Epiphany when the Transfiguration of our Lord is celebrated; and green, reminiscent of living plants and suggests spiritual growth. Green is used in the season of Epiphany beginning with the second week after the Epiphany until the week before the Transfiguration of our Lord is celebrated.
