World ‘benefits from the life of God’s people’

TRAC PRESIDENT Rev Dr Wee Boon Hup has spoken of the impact of the life that comes from believers and the Church. 

In a refreshing approach to delivering his sermon at the Closing Service of the 34^th TRAC Session at Bedok Methodist Church on Nov 26, 2009, he began by asking the congregation to sing “Deep and Wide” with him. 

His sermon, of the same title as the song, was based on the text from Ezekiel 47: 1-12. He said the point of the passage was not to dwell into the “how” of going deep and wide but the point was found in the question that Ezekiel’s guide asked him, “Have you seen this?”, or paraphrased, “Have you grasped the impact of the water of life?”  

How do we measure the depth of our life, he asked. The sign of a person’s or congregation’s genuine spiritual depth is measured by the width or span of his or her transforming and redeeming influence, he said.

The extent of our life affects not just people and their livelihood, but the very source of what their livelihood depends – the fish in the sea, and the fruit from the trees.

Just how wide is this extent? The scripture passage shows the transformation that the water of life brings. The water flows east, and Ezekiel was told to follow it into the desert in that direction. The desert will be transformed, for not only will the river flow through it, but on both banks of the river there will be many trees.

Note also the redemption caused by that water of life. The water flows east into the Dead Sea, so called because it is so filled with salt deposits that nothing living can survive in it. But when the river of life flows into this sea, the waters will be healed and redeemed so that the Dead Sea could be what it was supposed to be – one where fish thrives.

The Rev Dr Wee said that when the people of God are transformed and redeemed, they affect the environment. The created world benefits from the life of God’s people.

At the service, Ms Lee Shuit Kuin was ordained as a Diaconal Minister and later commissioned as a Missionary of the Methodist Missions Society to East Asia.

Ms Loretta Lim Swee Gek and Mr Reuben Ng Lee Keong were ordained as Deacons, and six Deacons were ordained as Elders – the Rev Bernard Chao Wee Chun, the Rev Khoo Kay Huat, the Rev Edmund Koh Leong Swee, the Rev Leslie Lim Kok Seng, the Rev Fred Tan Hee Kok and the Rev Aaron Tay Tian Yeow.  

The Rev Tan Cheok Kian was recognised as Missionary Pastor to East Asia.