The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures . . .
. . . Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, fo You are with me . . .

The Lord will care for you. Don’t fear. We are in the pandemic phase of Covid-19. Minister Dr Balakrishnan said that “we should assume the worst, even if we are hoping for the best,” and that Covid-19 and its aftermath is going to last “at least a year.” We need to maintain a healthy balance between preventing the spread of the virus and continuing to worship the Lord. Let me elaborate.

For now, we will continue our worship service and classes for several reasons. For one, our congregation size and the number of people who attend classes are very small (less than half the 250-figure set by the government). More importantly, just as we need to continue to go to work and attend to our various duties in life, like going to school and to the supermarket to purchase groceries, worshipping the Lord is also a necessity: “And let us consider how we may spur one another one toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25). Note that this instruction was given to Christian Jews who were facing persecution for their Christian faith. Their lives were in danger. Should they be caught meeting other Christians, they would die for their faith. Yet Paul urges them to continue to meet. If we do not somehow worship the Lord and have a regular intake of spiritual food, we put our souls into danger: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4; cf. Deut 8:3). For that, I commend all of you: you continue to trust the Lord and come to worship God.

To digress a little, dear child of God, you must desire to read and study God’s Word. In whatever you do and decide, you must ensure it is according to biblical principles. If you are not sure if your decision fits a biblical principle, there is a likelihood that what you do is wrong. If you carry on with that kind of decision, you will surely get into trouble. But how can you know biblical principles without studying God’s Word in depth with accuracty? Thus, you need to hear and study God’s Word. Tell yourself: “I want to understand every Bible passage with some depth.” Make this your life goal.

That said, we must also be socially responsible. Please abide by the health advisory given by the Singapore government (see https://www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19). For the church, you would have noticed that we have put some measures in place to maintain social distancing: we have increased the distance between chairs which can be seated with an intervening marked chair. Please do not sit on these marked chairs. Also, starting this Sunday, we do not provide tables during refreshment time so that we could keep the social distance of one metre. Classrooms are re-allocated, and classes will be conducted with no tables for the same reason of maintaining the social distance of one metre. We will also take the necessary measures in line with the government advisory as the Covid-19 situation changes.

We live in difficult times. Continue to trust the Lord by living life in a way that pleases Him. This is genuine faith. Faith is not about a nice feeling of being comforted. Rather, genuine faith comes before genuine comfort comes. Then the Lord will protect you in whatever circumstances you are in: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them” (Psalm 34:7). At the same time, please be socially responsible by maintain good personal hygiene.