“Do not Die in Our Tradition” by Rev Ting Hua Seng on 23rd Feb 2020

Are we really a faithful Christian? The preacher, Rev Ting shared about three things that a Christian need to do in his or her daily lives such as praying, reading the Bible and doing daily devotion. He noted that there are also practices that Christians have to be involved with for instance joining small groups, fellowship among Christians, attending regular church services and so on. “It can be deadly if we take it as merely tradition. During Jesus’ time, the Pharisees travelled approximately 60 miles from Jerusalem to Nazareth (where Jesus was born) just for the sake of condemning Jesus as to why he and the disciples did not wash their hands before food (Matthew 15:2). In Jewish’s tradition they must wash their hands starting from their fingers until their elbow which seems to be a standard S. O. P. to follow. This group of Pharisees were the ones against God for the sake of their tradition,” he said in his sermon. He pointed out that Christians should seek a Godly heart instead. He observed that a lot of worldly laws were made to be followed to ensure one is holy. In the book of Matthew 23:20, it said, “Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it”. In this way they block the door to the Kingdom of heaven. So what is God’s heart? God loves everyone and our purpose as Christians is to bring people to Him and not to put out the fire.