God’s Annual Amnesty

(Christmas Message delivered by Pastor at the True LifeChurch Christmas Eve Carol Service, 8 pm, Dec 24, 04)

Text: Luke 2:8-20

When a king is blessed with a first born son after many years he is so delighted that he declares an amnesty to his people who are imprisoned. To celebrate the happy occasion he declares a pardon for all the prison inmates.

When our Lord Jesus Christ was born, God sent an angel to announce to them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” And to Joseph in a dream, “for he shall save his people from their sins.”

The second part of the message that comes to us is that since God’s Son Jesus Christ is born our Saviour, God now declares him to be our Amnesty, the pardon from all our sins.

What I would awaken you to is every Christmas, Jesus Christ is offered to save us, God’s Son to die on the cross for our sins. These two facts Mary the Virgin Mother sees clearly in her heart as expressed in Winter Moon a new carol:

 
As I prepare this message there comes to hand a booklet celebrating Christmas distributed at Orchard Road. While it quotes the Bible as saying Christmas brings us love, peace, hope and abundant life, it misses the fact that Christ is born finally to die that our sins may be forgiven.

Dear Reader, May I ask again, Why do we so celebrate every Christmas? Do you believe Jesus is Mary’s virgin born Son from God and he has come to die on the cross to pay the penalty of your sins? Then you will become a Christian and be saved. May you now become our member and be baptised into God’s family. Amen.

Testimonies of Salvation

I have been in a Catholic school, as a convent girl, for 10 years. In my 10 years as a convent girl, I have attended many church services and have learnt a lot about God. In fact, I have been attending catechism classes since many years back, perhaps in 1998.

As I learn about God in school and in church, I came to love God more and more each day. It became a natural thing for me to read my Bible almost every night, attend church mass every week and sing hymns whenever I was free. Soon after, God became part of my life and that was when I decided to be a Catholic. I sought help from my Catholic cousins and relatives, asking them more about becoming a Catholic and stuff like that. Before I knew it, I was speaking to the Father in church and talking about baptism already.

After attending many years of church masses at St. Francis ‘Xavier Church, I transferred to the newly built St Anne’s Church. Having transferred from a non airconditioned church to one that is airconditioned, I became more passionate towards that church. One day, after mass, my cousin and I were approached by one of the church choir members to join the church choir. Without thinking, we immediately agreed to their request.

As a member of the church choir, I had singing practices almost 4 times a week, each session about 2-3 hours long. Although I often found it difficult to juggle my time between school and church commitments, I found it a joy being in the church choir, especially when singing hymns was one of my favourite thing to do.

Attending a Catholic church for so long, I have learnt a lot about the Catholic practices and ways. I became very devoted to Catholicism. However, I had a few Christian friends. Once, a Christian friend invited me over to her house for a Good Friday celebration. We had a singing session, prayers and a “mini-class” to learn about Christianity. I realized that the Christian beliefs and teachings were rather different from that of the Catholics. As I was still quite young then, I was very confused as I always thought that Catholic and Christian are one same religion. From then on, I decided to find out more.

As I grew older, I met a totally devoted Christian guy. We got along well and became very close. He told me a lot about Christianity. From him, I was told that there was only one God, and that only He can save us and bring us to everlasting life. I was also told that Mother Mary cannot bring us to heaven and praying to her, asking her to save us is wrong. He also told me that the way that the Catholics were praying and their beliefs were somewhat wrong. At first I was very confused and felt insulted. I couldn’t believe whatever I heard and got quite worked up. But as time passes, this guy patiently taught me a lot about God and the right way of believing in Him. A strong-minded person like me would definitely find it humiliating and irritable to listen to such things.

Many years later, I was brought to True Life B-P Church. Attending Sunday School and church services, I learnt more about the Christian beliefs. At first when I went to this church, I felt very uncomfortable. As a Catholic, I was attending a Christian Church service, with a totally different atmosphere and seeing many new faces. I was very afraid that the Christians there would not accept me. However, I was wrong. The people were very friendly and heart-warming. I was very comfortable and felt as though I was at home. They made me feel accepted and made me want to go for more of such services.

One day, during church service at True Life B-P Church, it was announced that there would be a baptism coming up. That was when I decided to convert to a Christian. I even spoke to Dr Jeffrey Khoo and he led me through the sinner’s prayer. I felt relieved. However, I was still scared of not being accepted because I will be converting from a Catholic to a Christian. At Sunday School one morning, Dr Jeffrey Khoo gave me a church membership application form. Upon receiving the form, I made up my mind about becoming baptized. I knew there was not much time left and I had to do it straight away and that I shouldn’t miss the blessings of baptism. Moreover, baptism would be carried out on the eve of Christmas Day. That made me even more eager to be baptized.

Writing this testimony, I am waiting for Christmas Eve to arrive, so that I can be baptized as a Christian, because I know that only after baptism can I officially announce to everyone that I am a Christian and I am proud to be one.

Apart from attending True Life B-P Church, I have also been going for the sunset gospel at Calvary Pandan. Since then, I have learnt much more about Christianity and I feel that I am another step closer to God.

I thank God for blessing me with the people around me and whom I have met. Without his blessings, I wouldn’t know about the beliefs and the right way of believing in Him.
– Cheryl Chow

*****

I was born into a family that had been Christian for at least four preceding generations. I was therefore exposed to the Bible from a very early age. Throughout my childhood (and indeed to this day) my parents would read portions of the Bible to me and we would pray together. As we lived with my paternal grandparents as an extended family, I witnessed the Christian faith being lived out in daily life by my grandparents. My grandmother impressed upon me that suffering for the sake of Christ had been her experience, and that of her father. The latter had been led to Christ by an American missionary in Ceylon, and upon accepting the Saviour at the age of sixteen, his father (a devout Hindu) had him tied to a tree, whipped by the servants, and thereafter, driven out of the home with only the clothes on his back. In later life, my great-grandfather was a lay preacher in the Methodist church in Ipoh. Such accounts of Christian life and steadfast faith made a profound and lasting impression on me.

As I grew older, however, I began to question myself. What if there is no God? How could I know of a certainty that He exists?

That conflict was soon resolved as I continued to read the Bible, specifically Psalm 19:1-3: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” I then realized that the “evidence” for God’s existence lay all around me.

Other events also influenced my spiritual growth. Prayers that were answered, ranging from prayers about the weather to prayers asking for strength to make it through a tough exam, helped to strengthen my faith.

As I entered Secondary 3, I began to be very involved in school-related activities with my classmates and with extracurricular programmes. I spent less and less time at home, and even that time was spent either studying or in recreational activities with my family. Apart from reading my Bible in the mornings and attending church on Sundays, I had altogether stopped any spiritual activity.

This continued until my first year of Junior College, when I suddenly realized that for a long time I had not really prayed, and had not really had any kind of communion with God. I prayed to the Lord and asked for forgiveness, and from that day onwards I have been trying to “pray without ceasing”.

As I now prepare to reaffirm my faith, it is my earnest prayer that the Lord will continue to guide and keep me and that, with each unfolding day, I may walk closer with Him.
– Robert Samuel V. Joseph

*****

As a daughter, wife and daughter-in-law, I was brought up to be obedient and filial to my family and ancestor worship was also a means of respect.

When my children have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, they encourage me to come to church to know and worship the True and Living God. Each time, my children invited me to evangelistic meetings, I gave excuses that I was on shift duties and tired. It was also difficult for me to break away from the things that I was taught and brought up in a traditional Chinese family even though I do not believe nor comprehend.

For two decades, I was constantly reminded of God’s providence and care for me by my children. When I looked back I truly believe that there must be a God who has taken such great care and interest in me.

Since my retirement last May, I have been attending the worship service and convicted that Jesus Christ died for my sins, buried and rose again. I may be illiterate but through the interpretation in Mandarin, I understand the meaning of Salvation and want to confirm my simple faith in this coming baptism.

I thank God for His Perfect Salvation for me.
– Chew Ah Tar

*****

It is a gradual progression over time for me coming to know of the Lord Jesus. I actually was introduced to God when I was in kindergarten. Then after, I studied in a convent school for 10 years. I did not receive any form of follow up. Neither did I have anyone to guide me through my Christian life.

After I left school, where we used to have weekly masses, I felt something amiss and started going to church weekly. I visited different churches and felt quite uncomfortable whenever I went to charismatic churches or churches which are skewed towards that direction.

It was the start of a new journey when I crave to learn more about Christ, and gradually letting go of the old life as I knew it (as a Catholic and someone who was searching). I thank God for showing me that the Roman Catholic religion which teaches salvation by works cannot save and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He died on the cross to pay for the penalty of my sins and was buried and rose again the third day.

I cannot quite remember when I am actually saved. But I have always believed and trusted God since young; probably kindergarten days. I would always look to Him in prayer, each time I was lost or needed direction.

Life has not been easy for me, but God has given me strength and wisdom through these years. I would always trust that He would not forsake me. I am very glad to be able to experience this personal relationship with God.

Though I have always believed, I did not take the step to get baptized. I have been undecided for the past years. It took me quite a while to decide on getting baptized as I come from a non- Christian background. (My parents and most of my relatives are non believers).

Now that I am quite settled in True Life Bible-Presbyterian Church, I feel that it’s time for me to be baptized, so that I can take my faith to a new and higher level, thus enriching my Christian life.
— Angeline Soo

*****

It was during infancy when I was brought before the Lord Jesus Christ in a brethren church some 20 odd years ago. During those early years I was inculcated with the knowledge of God’s almightiness, love and timeless existence (among other aspects) through children’s songs and stories told to me by both church teachers and my mother as well. That remained to be the case for the major part of my childhood relationship with God.

Being introduced to Jesus in such a manner, for most parts of my life I saw Him as someone more of an intimate personal friend whom I confided in, even just talking to Him naturally in the mind, innately knowing that He is the God who exists in my heart, knowing all and is in charge of all things. However, my perception of who God is attained a different, more complete level of understanding after having left my former church and attending the services at True Life only recently for the past 2 years. Having the blessed gifts of good teachings of the church I have grown to receive much comprehension and wisdom of God’s word such that spiritually I have gained much maturity.

It is right now my firm belief that it is through God’s precious gift of faith that I can attain the eternal blessing of everlasting life with Him in Heaven for I am also made clean finally, solely by Jesus’ cleansing blood. With greater knowledge of Lord Jesus’ mighty power and eminent secondcoming, there is an increased sense of fear and respect for Him as a father figure, more so than before when I saw Him just as a friend. Thus it is my sincere will and pleasure to fulfill His wishes for baptism after also learning more about its significance in the Christian life of a person, and finally affirm my faith for once and always, that I am indeed a saved re-borned child of His whom I shall spend eternity with when my flesh finally dies.
— Joseph Chong