Brothers and sisters, this morning I present testimony of God’s grace given unto me.

While I was baptized before you today, I accepted Christ more than 3 years ago; while I accepted Christ more than 3 years ago, I came to know Him 9 years before then. In Jeremiah 18:6, God tells us “Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand”. Looking back on those years, the fingerprints left by the Potter’s hands are evidently clear.

I came to know Christ (and Christianity) through an after-school program run by the 7th Day Adventists. I was introduced to hymns and Bible stories, and beyond that I came to know of a God with whom I can confide. That aside, it is the sincerity and fervor of my pastor’s prayers that I remember most distinctly. On hindsight, it was then that the seeds of my faith were sowed.

The following year, the program, as well as the church that supports it, had to relocate because the government had planned to build a subway through its premise. I was 11 when the church relocated. I did not relocate with the congregation because the new church was too far away. Even though I did not ask, I knew that my parents will be reluctant to drive me to the new church. My parents have yet to come to know Christ and at that time they were not supportive of me going to church.

So I did not attend another church for the next 7 years. But I recall running to God many times during that period, especially during times when I was confused, fearful and when I needed to confide. During that time, the problems in my parent’s marriage became more and more serious and I was depressed by how far they had been drifting apart. I felt especially sorry for my mother, who sacrificed for me again and again while my father was constantly away on business trips. Moreover, schooling in Singapore can be tough, and the education system can be very unforgiving to those who perform badly. Prior to major exams, it is not uncommon to hear stressed-out students applying physics to measure the acceleration and velocity of jumping off a building. During those times, God gave me tremendous comfort and assurance. I was convinced that no other teaching appealed to me more than the sincerity behind Christianity. But it took 9 years for me to accept Christ. Without the support of a church, I was neither convinced nor disciplined enough to act on my convictions. I know the few things that I was certain about and the many things that I have yet to find resolution, but it is tiring and frustrating to have a debate going on constantly at the back of my mind. Out of vanity and exasperation, I lose myself to the everyday, to schoolwork, to the activities in school, to getting along and moving on.

I received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior on 12th December 2004. Retrospectively, it seems like a natural stop on that slow progression. In 11th grade, my classmate brought me to Bedok Methodist Church. I did not attend it regularly but I came to like the people. The Bible study teacher reminded me of many of the good things I remember about the people I had met during the after-school program. Again, the one thing that I remember most vividly from those early days at Bedok Methodist Church was the sincerity and humility with which my Bible study teacher brought her prayers to God. She prays beautifully, but that beauty transpires not from her coherence, but from her sincerity, her humility and from the gentleness of her faith.

After high school, like every male Singaporean, I enlisted with the military. Strangely, my daily walk with God was most consistent while I was in the army. It was most consistent because I was least distracted. Part of it had to do with feeling very forgotten. All my male friends were enduring the same experience in another camp somewhere. All my female friends had gone on to university. The environment was alien to me, I had to march everywhere and ask permission for everything. When every distraction was taken away from me, I found that all that I had is God. From my bed by the window, I prayed to Him every night. Through those prayers I came to appreciate life’s challenges differently; and I came to see pride and ambition, people and relationships in a new light.

Let me relate a story. STORY

I attended church camp at the end of that year that I enlisted. On the last night of the camp I answered the altar call. It was not that the sermon was particularly inspiring, and unlike all the people around me, my eyes were relatively dry. But I felt that it was right that I have to make an acceptance of having received Christ as my personal savior.

Baptism is in part a command from God. Baptism is also in part a symbol. And that symbolism is as much for me (who got baptized) as it is for you (who witnessed me affirming my faith).

So let there be two things that all of us can bring home from my testimony.

Firstly, the small things that we do for God do matter. When we outreach by doing community service, baking cookies, when we invite friends to cell group, to our church, you are sowing seeds in people’s lives. There is a good chance you will not see the seeds bear fruit but we can all take comfort in the knowledge that you played a role in the expansion of His Kingdom.

The second thing I want to say is that greatness comes in simple trappings. The divine majesty, the fullness of His grace is also manifested in simple, everyday, common, prosaic things. Not all of us will find in our testimonies the Road-To-Damascus Moment. Not all of us will hear a voice calling for us from behind the clouds. But who is to say that the way God found you is anything short of remarkable. There is nothing unremarkable about someone who has yet to know Christ walking into a cell group. There is nothing un-miraculous about a baby born into a God-loving family. If you have grown up in a church all your life, there is nothing un-miraculous about God-loving communities guiding young lives as they grow up. It is an open secret that the church is most crowded on Easter and Christmas. And if this is your first time in this church, this year, there is nothing un-miraculous about that.

On this, the most holiday day in the Christian calendar, just as Christ conquered death and lived again, let up renew that promise that He made in your heart. As Paul says “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things yet to come, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

That is also my conviction, and that is my hope and my prayer. I wish you a happy Easter. Thank you.