New Year Message

(A New Year's Message by U Them Maung at the Fellowship Meeting of the Church of God in Insein, Burma.)

Greetings to you all on this New Year's Day

God has safely carried us through another year and by His grace we are now on the threshold of a new year.

We thank God for keeping us alive to live for Him and to show forth His excellencies (1 Peter 2.9).

Life is an opportunity for that purpose and we should make the best use of it.

I speak according to James 4.15, that "if the Lord will" we shall live through the New Year. There are ups and downs in our life and we are bound to meet them. There is no continual sunshine and smooth sailing in any person's life.

How shall we prepare ourselves to meet the ups and downs of our life in the New Year into which, by the grace of God, we have been ushered today?

Today, the 1st of January, 1964, is the day for us to consider this question seriously, if we have not hitherto done so, and make the right decision in the light of the teaching of Scripture.

The Scripture text I have chosen to be our guiding principle for the New Year is in Philippians 4.6, which reads,

"In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

We, who are God's children, are not without hope while sojourning on this earth. The most precious thing is that we worship the eternal living God in spirit and truth (John 4.24), and can approach Him at all times and seasons to make our requests.

The procedure of approach to God is laid down in Ephesians 2.18,

"Through Him (Jesus Christ) we ... have our access in one Spirit unto the Father".

We notice from this text that there are three Persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is spoken of as "He" (that is third person, singular number) in the Scriptures. For example, in John 14.26, the Comforter, or the Holy Spirit, is spoken of by the Lord Jesus as "He shall teach you all things".

This fact, God in three Persons, is a mystery or a secret thing which is now revealed, but beyond our limited comprehension. We must, however, believe and obey the holy Scriptures revealed to us, and not interpret them in our own ways lest we fall into the error of Adam and Eve, who doubted God's word and fell. Alas! it was a great fall!

We are told in Deuteronomy 29.29 that "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever."

Remember also that "to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel

15.22).

In making requests to God, the presence of three elements is necessary, namely (1) prayer, (2) supplication, and (8) thanksgiving.

We know what prayer and thanksgiving are, but the word "supplication" needs amplification. It is derived from Latin, sup-sub (under), plicare (fold, bend). The English word "supplication" is a translation of, and the nearest approach to the Greek word deesis. To understand the full import or implication of the word "supplication" (Gr. deesis), I would refer you to Luke 18.9-14 about the Pharisee and the publican, a parable spoken by the Lord.

Of the three elements required in making a request to God, two were present in the Pharisee's prayer-he prayed and he thanked God. The important element "supplication" was missing. He filled this missing place with self-righteousness and an unwarranted sneer at the poor publican in the presence of the Holy God in His holy temple. The publican's attitude of body and mind illustrated what "supplication" means. (1) Standing afar, (2) would not lift so much as his eyes unto heaven, {3) smote upon his breast, (4) "God be mercifiji to me a sinner".

The Scripture says, "This man went down to his house justified rather than the other" for he humbled himself. Be it so with each of us!

unknown | Mar 1964
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